We are now less than two weeks away from the Presidential election -- and Trump seems to have momentum. In the all-important states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina, Trump looks to be ahead of Harris.

From a policy perspective, what might a Trump victory on November 5th mean? A Trump win would be bad news for the administrative state. Talking to one of Trump’s policy people a couple of months ago, they suggested to me that in his first term Trump had been too trusting of officialdom. The 45th President had underestimated the extent to which the bureaucratic machine in Washington would try to frustrate his policy goals.

I doubt that in a second term Team Trump would let that happen again. If Trump wins, I expect to see parts of the administrative state dismantled. Rumors suggest that Elon Musk would be asked to form an efficiency task force. With a ballooning national debt, perhaps Musk could reengineer government to reduce its size and costs, while improving its effectiveness.

Trump has explicitly committed to eliminating the federal Department of Education. Speaking on “Fox & Friends,” Trump reiterated the point, saying that he wanted to get “education out of Washington.” In response to a question from a student, Trump said school choice “is one of the biggest things on my platform.”
 
Trump went on to point out that the U.S. currently spends more on education than many other Western countries, about $16,000 per student per year. Unlike some in Mississippi, Trump did not pretend that there had been some sort of education ‘miracle.’ Indeed, Trump emphasized that the education system produces poor results, despite all the money lavished upon it.
 
Honesty about the true state of education is the essential first step if there is to be significant reform. In conservative Mississippi, we have somehow ended up with a new education superintendent, Lance Evans, who is anti-parent power. The other week, Evans went out of his way to attack school choice.
 
How odd that in a Republican-run state we should have such an anti-school choice education superintendent at the moment when Trump looks likely to win the White House. Did the Republican leaders of our state not know Evans was anti-school choice before he was appointed? Did they know the man they were about to appoint was anti-parent power but go ahead all the same?
 
A Trump victory will surely flush out the anti-school choice Republicans in states like Mississippi who have done little to advance parent power. It is not enough to pay lip service to school choice, yet somehow allow anti-school choice officials to take the helm at the Department for Education. Nor is it acceptable to say you want school choice, when we have only a handful of Charter Schools because those appointed to oversee the Authorized Board seem happy to say “no” to new schools.
 
This kind of politics has all the integrity of WorldCom accounting. A Trump win on November 5th could have the effect of an audit. Time could soon be up for anti-school choice “conservatives” in states like ours.

Douglas Carswell is the President and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy

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