Education is at the forefront of the November election, as is our future.

Millions of parents across the country tuned in to the presidential debate, but they didn’t hear a single question from moderators to either candidate about one of the most important issues affecting them and their children: the future of education in the United States.

Whether it was intentional or not, the omission was undoubtedly another step up for Vice President Kamala Harris from an institutional media that does everything it can to help her cross the finish line. We all had to sit through relentless, one-sided “fact checks” against former President Donald Trump. We had to hear Harris’ clearly choreographed answers to seemingly choreographed questions about race and climate change.

It is a disservice to voters and students across the country that there was not a single question about education. It is one of the most important factors in the future economic prosperity of our country. Without children equipped with basic literacy and math skills, we do not have a workforce prepared to compete in the global economy.

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We haven’t heard a word about what either candidate thinks about educating the next generation of Americans or how it should be done. This is especially glaring because most parents are desperate to find solutions that will transform their children’s schools.

Half of Americans believe our education system is headed in the wrong direction, and most of them blame teachers for bringing politics into the classroom. (iStock)

About half of Americans are concerned that our education system is headed in the wrong direction, according to a Pew poll from April. At the same time, most of those who think education is headed in the wrong direction do so because, they say, schools are not spending enough time on core academic subjects. Most of that group also expressed concerns that teachers are bringing their personal political views into the classroom.

That’s on the back of last year’s reading and math scores, which fell to their lowest levels in decades for 13-year-olds nationwide. That same year, ACT scores for high school students fell to their lowest in 30 years. Yet per-pupil spending in public school systems is hitting record levels across the board.

These aren’t just statistics. They are the reality of countless American parents across the country who continue to see their tax dollars go to school systems that indoctrinate their children politically while failing them academically year after year.

At the same time, teachers are still grappling with the shockwaves of COVID-19 and disastrous lockdown policies. Broken education systems that failed children when they were in the classroom have put them on Zoom and degraded their education even further. Now that children are back in their desks, the pre-existing problems in those systems are still waiting to be fixed.

Many schools today teach not education, but indoctrination. They teach distorted narratives of American history that demonize our founders and our founding principles. They teach narratives of race relations that portray students as oppressors or oppressed. They teach gender ideologies that contradict both basic human biology and the religious values ​​and beliefs of parents. They fill school libraries with explicit, pornographic materials intended to indoctrinate and sexualize students.

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All of this is perpetuated by an iron triangle of government bureaucrats, union bosses, and politicians who are doing everything they can to give these groups more power to exclude parents from the process, and more money to do it. Harris is just one of those politicians. She had one of the most radically progressive voting records in the Senate, and she has never voted on a vote that the unions didn’t like. That’s why the AFT was so quick to endorse her.

Parents and students deserve change; we all need it.

This is an area where Trump’s policy agenda will sweep the floor with the vice presidential debate. Like crime, immigration, and many others, this is another area where she and her fellow radical progressive Democrats are completely out of touch with what Americans want and where they don’t care about what American students deserve.

About half of Americans are concerned that our education system is headed in the wrong direction, according to a Pew poll from April. At the same time, most of those who think education is headed in the wrong direction do so because, they say, schools are not spending enough time on core academic subjects. Most of that group also expressed concerns that teachers are bringing their personal political views into the classroom.

Trump’s record on education is unquestionably pro-parent and pro-student. As president, when he spoke about the importance of education, he actually took action, issuing executive orders to expand school choice. He created the 1776 Commission to counter political indoctrination and radical ideological theories with a patriotism grounded in an accurate and honest reading of American history.

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And his vision for a second term is even more ambitious. The policies he has outlined focus on everything the education cartel doesn’t want: parental rights, merit-based teacher pay and tenure, valuing education over indoctrination, and more freedom to choose educational approaches that don’t fit the mold of government schools.

When I talk to parents in Oklahoma and across the country, Trump’s approach is the one they’d like to see implemented. The other has been tried for decades and has consistently failed. It’s the conversation Americans deserved to hear last week and it absolutely needs to happen before November.

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