The Patriot Post® · Tim Scott Challenges the Schools

Certain educrats have a tell when they’re afraid of losing control of our kids: They go to the Leftmedia with scare tactics, and they claim Republicans are “waging war” on education.

In this case, it’s they who are waging war — against South Carolina Senator and Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott, who simply wants to empower parents and make sure schools aren’t using our kids as pawns in their woke social experiments.

Just last year, in fact, Scott introduced legislation to cut federal funding to schools that implement transgender policies denying parental notification. And now, Scott has introduced a plan to create a “family first” culture in education.

More specifically, Scott’s 12-point plan promises to “defend every parent’s right to know what their child is hearing and reading in school” and “empower every family the right to opt out of propaganda that attacks their values and religious liberty.” Additionally, the plan pledges to break the backs of the teachers’ unions, protect girls’ sports, and take critical race theory out of the classroom.

“Teachers’ unions, Big Tech, and Joe Biden are on a mission to make parents less important,” said Scott in a press release. “I have a bold agenda to support and empower parents — from the classroom to the locker room to the smartphone. We must empower parents and give them a choice, so that every child has a chance.”

Scott faces a steep uphill struggle to win the GOP nomination and then the White House, but while his plan shares some characteristics for improving education that other candidates have embraced, it shows an emphasis that is unique to Scott. Even CNN has noticed his focus on education: “Scott has made education a central theme of his campaign since its launch in May,” the network reports, “frequently citing his own experience growing up in poverty and attending college on a partial football scholarship. He often tells audiences at campaign events that education ‘is the closest thing to magic,’ and has stressed the importance of education in overcoming the disadvantages facing poor Black Americans.”

Maybe that’s why those on the Left are so critical of Scott’s plan. Maybe that’s why they say he’s targeting race and gender (like we haven’t heard that charge before).

In reality, he’s tapping into a national movement to remove politics from our classrooms, keep the focus on traditional values and proven educational methods, and give parents a say in where they send their kids to school. Of course, none of these measures sit well with Democrats, who want nothing more than to protect their education monopoly.

“At its core,” writes the Washington Examiner’s Kaylee McGhee, “Democrats’ opposition to school choice stems from the realization that it would break the education monopoly they’ve spent the past several decades building. If parents have the financial power to leave the government’s system, then that system no longer has control — control over government funds, over the ideological upbringing of children, and over the families who have been bullied into thinking they have no say in the matter.”

One of the best ways to shatter the federal education bureaucracy and empower parents is to eliminate the Department of Education, which, incidentally, four Republican presidential candidates pledged to do in last week’s first debate. Tim Scott wasn’t one of them.

Nonetheless, giving parents an educational voice is one of the central pieces of Scott’s plan, which allows parents to decide “whether it’s public school, private school, charter school, STEM school, or homeschool that is best for their child.”

In the end, Scott’s presidential aspirations may be a long shot, but the eventual GOP nominee would be wise to give his plan serious consideration. It’s a detailed, workable, and winning plan to save our schools from the Marxist assault on our children.