People are beginning to understand that education is the most critical domestic policy issue facing our country.  This is why education policy decisions both past and promised could shape the 2024 presidential election.

Much like the promises to end Common Core in the 2016 presidential election, this year's Republican candidates are promising to end indoctrination in government schools.  I think we will see all 2024 presidential candidates promise to "fix" education, but some of us wonder if government schools are redeemable.

During the first Republican presidential debate, the candidates had stern remarks regarding education, with Ron DeSantis leading in his defense of parents and highlighting the "Nation's Report Card" being the worst in history.  Vivek Ramaswamy said education is the civil rights issue of our time, while Tim Scott and Chris Christie had vicious remarks about teachers' unions.  Four candidates called for closing the U.S. Department of Education, as has former president Donald Trump, which is the mission of the organization I lead.

During the second debate, education came up again.  Nikki Haley reminded people that 67% of our children are not ready for the next step in their lives.  Christie, Pence, Haley, and Burgum all repeated the need to move education out of the federal government back to the states.  DeSantis, Pence, and Christie all promoted school choice.  Notably, Scott promoted the idea proposed by U.S. Parents Involved in Education of increasing the federal child tax credit, letting parents keep their own money if their children are not enrolled in government schools.

Even Democrats are beginning to see the writing on the wall, evidenced by a new Democrat poll that shows that Democrats lost their historic lead on education in battleground states.  Democrats for Education Reform released polling results last month showing that "Democrats ceded trust on education to Republicans as voters note concerns over lingering pandemic learning loss."  This trust is likely misguided, since Republicans failed miserably to address the ongoing education crisis in America when they had control of the White House and Congress.

Both parties like to blame COVID shutdowns for the continued downward spiral in academic achievement that began in 2014, as seen in test scores by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).  Experts and informed parents battled from 2010 through 2013 to strip states of the faulty Common Core Standards pushed by the federal government.  Common Core opponents predicted this academic decline from the time the standards were fully implemented, which aligns with the steady waning shown in NAEP scores.  The dramatic decline of test scores didn't start with COVID shutdowns (although it certainly exacerbated the problem).

Common Core destroys a child's foundational education with K–3 standards that are developmentally inappropriate; it frustrates students and parents with unproven fuzzy math and shifts reading from classic literature to informational text (dry, boring technical documents and liberal propaganda).  When you add the recent sexualization of children causing them to doubt their biological sex (often without parental knowledge or consent), the anti-American ideology that is teaching children to hate themselves, others, and their country, and the false history that stems from the notion that our country is systemically racist, the reality of American education becomes clear.  Government schools have become untenable.

Voters — not just parents — want to restore parental and local control of education.  They are fed up with those who have an intentional agenda to change our country's form of government through the minds of American children.  The liberal takeover of colleges of education now spills over into K–12 classrooms and has destroyed America's government schools.

United States Parents Involved in Education is sounding the alarm for freedom-loving Americans.  You can no longer sit on the sidelines and wish our country were like it used to be, when we could trust local schools to reflect our values and kids were taught patriotism.  Americans must join the fight and educate themselves about how their tax dollars (hundreds of billions) are being spent to turn children against this nation.  The first step is to access reputable resources that expose the insidious pedagogies being propagated on young children.  The next step is connecting with the future leaders of America and others who want to end the use.

It is vital that Americans become aware of what is going on in America's school system and are ready and able to make educated votes in the upcoming elections.  Our freedom — and the country's future — depends on it.

Sheri Few is the founder and president of United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE), whose mission is to end the U.S. Department of Education and all federal education mandates.  USPIE has established 20 state chapters and is growing rapidly amid the national outcry from parents who want to regain control of their children's education.  Few is a nationally recognized leader on education policy and is often quoted in conservative media.  Few has spent much of the last year exposing Critical Race Theory and serving as executive producer for the new documentary film titled Truth & Lies in American Education.

Image: USPIE.