School choice is a big issue this election cycle, not just among Republican voters, but with Democrats and Independents, especially here in Florida.
School choice is a make or break issue in Florida, so if you come down on the wrong side of it (oppose it), politicians can expect to lose significant support from tens of thousands of school-minded voters.
Earlier this year, The White House announced that President Donald Trump would be calling on Congress to pass the “Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act and give 1 million children the freedom to attend a school of their choice.”
Trump is fully supportive of both public and private schools, but former Vice President Joe Biden appears to only support public charter schools and is against any federal funding for private Charter Schools.
During an interview with the National Education Association, a group that has openly stated their opposition towards charter schools, Biden agreed with the NEA’s position on charter schools.
TEACHERS' UNION: "[We've] pushed back against what we think are very misguided school reforms like charter schools...You know how we feel about charter schools"
BIDEN: "Same way I feel"
Biden went on to say that if he were elected president, not “a penny of federal money” would go to private charter schools” even as two-thirds of parents support the Charter School, education model.
“I will not… there will be no federal dollars,” said Biden. I'm not Betsy DeVos, nor will my Secretary of Education be like her in terms of her attitudes about public schools. No privately funded Charter Schools will receive or private Charter Schools, will receive a penny of federal money -none.
According to a 2019 public opinion poll conducted by the American Federation for Children and Democratic polling firm Beck Research, of 1,200 likely 2020 voters, 67% support school choice.
In their recently-released policy statement towards Charter Schools, the NEA stated that it could continue it’s “forceful support of state and local efforts to limit charter growth and increase charter accountability and slow the diversion of resources from neighborhood public schools to charters.”
Video courtesy of Tommy Schultz
Florida State Representative and Republican congressional nominee in Florida's 19th District, Byron Donalds recently stated that school choice was "not a political issue" and that "every child in Florida and around the nation deserved "the opportunity to succeed and to have access to quality education."
