Not long ago, everyone agreed that public education was a value in this nation, much like the notion of a democracy. Yet just like with Republicans shifting attitudes toward democracy, more prominent Republicans are now openly disparaging the entire concept of public schools. Laura Ingraham claimed that “a lot of people are saying it's time to defund government education or at least defund it by giving vouchers to parents.” Fox’s Greg Gutfeld similarly declared that private school vouchers are needed because public schools are “a destructive system” and described teachers as “KKK with summers off.”
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has called public schools “a cesspool of Marxist indoctrination.” Donald Trump declared, “public schools have been taken over by the radical left maniacs.” And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called them taxpayer-funded indoctrination centers that need to end, which is a bit ironic since she is the poster child for the necessity of funding public education.
Although Republicans have long held a disdain for public schools, only recently have they openly advocated for ending them. Like libraries, they are arguing that giving taxpayer money to educate people is a socialist concept. Thankfully, we have had a public school system for centuries, which makes it hard to destroy. However, the GOP has opened up a new front by starving public schools for funds while diverting the resources to charter schools, private institutions, and homeschooling without any of the standards that public schools must adhere to. After all, the biggest threat to their party is critical thinking and an educated populace.
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Conservatives have had a considerably extensive history fighting public education. School desegregation is what originally drove white evangelicals to become the strongest Republican demographic. Ronald Reagan promised to end the Department of Education in 1980, and every other GOP presidential candidate has been openly hostile to it. Possibly no Republican did as much damage as Trump, who put heiress Betsy DeVos in charge of the Department of Education despite having no background in education.
Chances are you know who she is, which is saying something since most people never know anything about their secretary of Education. (Do you know who the current one is? Click here.)
Betsy DeVos with disgraced former Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr.
DeVos was particularly terrible. She took the unique approach of actually advocating against federal funding for education. She attacked teachers, rolled back protections for minority students, and rewrote regulations to make it more difficult for sexual assault victims. Yet conservatives loved her precisely because she was a leading proponent of taking public school funds and funneling them to right-wing religious schools.
Right now, red state legislatures are trying to do this through "school choice" reforms. Conservative states, like Florida, are burdening public schools with expensive requirements and taking money to give to unregulated charter schools. They defund schools while supporting a fast-growing sector of charter schools funded by right-wing billionaires to deliver indoctrination of their ideology. The money they take away from public schools cuts not just educational programs, but mental health funding to prevent violence, suicide, and drug abuse.
Their plan looks like this: Parents are given a voucher for several thousand dollars that comes out of the state education budget. The money can be spent on tuition for charter or private schools, microschools (collective homeschooling), or regular homeschooling. Republicans say the “money goes to the kids.” In reality, it reduces money going to public schools to a point where the schools will be dramatically underfunded and collapse. That’s the point, according to Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers:
Instead of coming together around solutions we know will help our students, some are unfortunately hellbent on destroying public education to advance both a political and school privatization agenda.
Overwhelmingly, parents, educators and supporters of public schools are against this ongoing divisive rhetoric and against the systematic defunding of schools. But we must do more.
States like Arizona, Florida, and Texas have aggressively pursued "school choice" reforms, undermining public school funding. Pennsylvania's failed right-wing Christian nationalist candidate from 2022, Doug Mastriano, tried to eliminate property taxes, a significant source of school funding, and instead give families inadequate $9,000 vouchers. If his plan succeeded, it would have completely gutted funding for public schools.
Vouchers for private schools simply aren't a viable alternative for many families. They often fall short of covering the tuition costs at most private or charter schools, leaving parents with hefty expenses. Florida's history with vouchers illustrates that poorer students promised a better education often end up in low-quality charter schools that eventually shut down, harming the students.
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Anita Giles told me she sent her son to a charter school in Palmetto, Florida, called Lincoln Memorial Academy in 2018. “It was a horrible experience. The teachers didn’t seem to care. I found out later that they weren’t getting paid.” The school closed in 2019 and the property was returned to Manatee County.
Massey Hill Classical School in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Just this year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a sweeping bill that took money allotted for public school students and redistributed it to those who want to send their kids to private or charter schools. Thanks to the recent Supreme Court ruling in Carson v. Makin, which broke decades of precedent, religious schools now have access to public funds.
Worse, there is no barrier for financial need, so the wealthiest parents in Florida who are already sending their children to expensive private schools get taxpayer money to do so.
Some private schools responded by instantly jacking up their rates by thousands of dollars, which created a windfall of taxpayer funds for them but rendered the vouchers completely useless. They weren’t shy about doing it. Monsignor Robert Gibbons of St. Paul Catholic School said they needed to take “maximum advantage of this dramatically expanded funding source.”
Meanwhile, the charter schools it went toward included schools that had high school dropouts working as teachers and even allowed that information to be kept from parents. Charter schools in Florida have essentially no rules; they don’t need to disclose curriculum, graduation rates, or where they spend their money. Public schools must do all of this, and are required to only hire teachers with degrees and certifications.
In addition, public schools have strict requirements on what items can be purchased for learning supplies. If you take a voucher to not go to public school, however, you can buy everything from surfboards to theme park tickets as a legitimate expense.
The right-wing grifts write themselves. Conservative talk show host Charlie Kirk launched a Trump-inspired set of schools called America First Academy. He set up in Arizona, another state with a universal voucher, and partnered with an education firm that promised to “generate over $40 million in gross revenue at full capacity.” After a key subcontractor found out from a Washington Post investigation that Charlie Kirk was behind the school, the plan collapsed.
Then there’s the legal discrimination issue. Public schools are required to admit everyone. Charter schools have flat-out refused to admit children with disabilities. Here in Florida, it’s both legal and disgusting. They have handbooks that say they’ll only accept students who can walk on their own and have no “limited intellectual functions.” Even when one family tried to offer payment for physical and occupational therapy, which they shouldn’t have had to do, the school told the parents they didn’t want the child.
Also, this being DeSantis’ Florida, you can also deny children who identify as LGBTQ+. Charter schools even have handbooks that say if someone is discovered to live in a home with a “homosexual lifestyle,” that child will be expelled. These are just the policies that are written down. The treatment they receive that isn’t written down is worse. Parents have made disturbing complaints, according to the Orlando Sentinel:
“Cleaning lady substituting for teacher.”
“Children of all ages are running out of classrooms screaming and hitting each other.”
“They don’t provide lunch and they don’t even have a place to eat.”
“I don’t see any evidence of academics.”
And “vast scope of educational neglect.”
Not exactly what parents expected. Nor what most taxpayers want to hear about how public money is being spent.
So how did Florida’s education department respond to these complaints?
Well, the state won’t provide the public records that answer that question—unless the Orlando Sentinel coughs up more than $10,000.
As public schools are pressured to constantly cut costs, some are resorting to virtual learning. Teacher pay and requirements are also drastically reduced, exacerbating the existing teacher shortage. Furthermore, students have teacher instruction replaced with online videos and programs. Although virtual learning can work if it’s done correctly, here in Florida, right-wing propaganda is allowed to substitute for education. A propaganda outfit called Prager U, put together by firebrand Dennis Prager, is allowed to be used as an educational resource in Florida schools, so kids can learn that climate change is a hoax and systemic racism no longer exists.
A demonstrator shows her support after a violent protest sparked by recognition of Pride Month by her school board.
Public schools here in Florida and other red states already have to contend with ridiculous book bans and laws about what can and can’t be in textbooks, not to mention the extremist organization Moms for Liberty turning school board meetings into incoherent shouting matches. The attack on their funding from charter schools is a bridge too far.
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Everything in the U.S. has been viewed through a political lens, which is why we still can’t get benefits or social policies that exist in most other developed nations: universal health care, reliable public transportation, paid parental leave, and strong social safety nets. The one exception to this rule has always been education, where Republican and Democratic parents have been able to traditionally put aside ideological differences to support the needs of their children. Not long ago, teachers were regarded by everyone to be heroes.
It’s not surprising since public schools serve 90% of America’s children regardless of socioeconomic status or religious views. Yet this new breed of MAGA Republican has upended everything. Now poor people are doing Republican billionaires’ bidding by calling for the destruction of public education, demonizing teachers, and being openly hostile to educating their children. This may be Trump’s worst legacy to date.
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