NOVEMBER 2024 | Volume 2 | Number 10
Welcome to the November 2024 post-election edition of the ACCS Legal Update.
On Tuesday, November 5th, the United States chose her 47th President, along with a number of governors, senators, representatives, county and city leaders, and a host of other specific ballot measures.
In this Legal Update, we will consider the differences between the education policies endorsed by the two main Presidential candidates – Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris – and what ACCS schools can expect given the election of Donald Trump as the next President of the United States.
The Democratic Platform for K-12 Education
Vice President Harris’s platform for K-12 education was not simply similar to President Biden’s, it was identical. As Education Week’s Libby Stanford reported, “The platform doesn’t veer from the Biden Administration’s approach to K-12. In fact, it passed without Democrats updating the document to reflect that Harris has replaced President Joe Biden as the top name on the ticket.”
So, what did that platform entail? In broad terms, the Democratic plan for K-12 education focused on several priorities: increased pay and benefits for public school teachers, expanding the amount of time children spend in school, increased government control over school decisions, and continued implementation of federally mandated progressive policies.
The Republican Platform for K-12 Education
In short, if one wanted to understand President-Elect Trump’s K-12 education platform, one could simply read everything above and do the opposite. The emphasis of the Republican platform is parental rights, school choice, a return to basic academics and citizenship education, and a return of educational authority to the States. Relevant portions of the platform have been quoted below to summarize the new administration’s plans.
Parent Rights
The Republican platform openly states that they want to “restore Parental Rights in Education, and enforce our Civil Rights Laws to stop schools from discriminating on the basis of race.” They aim to “support schools that focus on Excellence and Parental Rights” and advocate “ending Teacher Tenure, adopting Merit pay, and allowing various publicly supported Educational models” (capitalization theirs).
School Choice
“Republicans believe families should be empowered to choose the best Education for their children. We support Universal School Choice in every State in America. We will expand 529 Education Savings Accounts and support Homeschooling Families equality.”
Regarding 529 ESAs: These savings plans have been available for several years. Many parents are unaware that, though they were originally restricted to saving for college, many states authorized use of 529 funds for K-12 tuition as of 2019. President-Elect Trump plans to make those accounts more accessible and flexible for parents.
Citizenship Education
President-Elect Trump also emphasized the need for educational approaches that encouraged true patriotism and love of America. The official platform stated, “Republicans will reinstate the 1776 Commission, promote Fair and Patriotic Civics Education, and veto efforts to nationalize Civics Education. We will support schools that teach America’s Founding Principles and Western Civilization.” Further, they pledged to “ensure children are taught fundamentals like Reading, History, Science, and Math, not Leftwing propaganda. We will defund schools that engage in inappropriate political indoctrination of our children using Federal Taxpayer Dollars.”
State Authority
Finally, President-Elect Trump aims to remove primary educational authority from the U.S. Department of Education and return it to the States. The official platform statement reads, “The United States spends more money per pupil on Education than any Country in the World, and yet we are at the bottom of every educational list in terms of results. We are going to close the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. and send it back to the States, where it belongs, and let the States run our educational system as it should be run.”
This policy leans upon the Tenth Amendment of the Bill of Rights which reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” Because authority over education is nowhere given to the federal government, it rightly belongs at the state and local levels.
Now What?
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In this post-election edition of the ACCS Legal Update, I have sought to give you a picture of two possible worlds – what might have been, and what will likely be.
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Thank the Lord for His mercy in granting private Christian education a season of more freedom. Should President-Elect Trump’s policies go into effect, Christian educators and homeschooling families will all benefit. Additionally, those children who are in public education may be given a reprieve from the constant indoctrination of progressive ideology. Lord, let it be so!
Grace & Peace,
Brian Phillips, Ed.D.
If you are in search of legal advice for you or your school, please consider the following resources: Brotherhood Mutual and Alliance Defending Freedom
Brian Phillips is the pastor of Holy Trinity Reformed Church (CREC – Concord, NC) and teaches Rhetoric at Oaks Classical Christian Academy (Albemarle, NC). Brian has also served as the Director of Consulting for The Circe Institute, Head of Upper School at Covenant Classical School (Concord, NC), and was an adjunct faculty member of Belmont Abbey College.
Dr. Phillips has an M.A. in Theological Studies, an M.A. in Classical Studies, an Ed.D. in Classical Education, and completed paralegal training at Duke University. He is also the author/editor of several books, including Sunday Mornings: An Introduction to Biblical Worship, Tales of Wonder (Vol. I & II) and the Canon Classics Guides to Dante’s Inferno and the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Brian and his wife, Shannon, live in North Carolina with their four children and their German Shepherd, Ajax the Great.