Trump and Harris conflicting views on education

Both major presidential candidates have varying views on academics and the school system in the US. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris views access to education as a major issue. During her term as the vice president under President Biden, she focused on many aspects to make education cheaper and more accessible to all. 

“I believe that a child going without an education is a crime,” Harris said.

About 20 years ago, Harris started a program that aimed to inform and charge fees to parents of chronically absent students. She sent letters to advise parents of these students to send their children to school or there would be consequences. Any parent that didn’t heed these warnings was prosecuted in court as a punishment, along with a $2,500 fee. 

In 2010 she ran to be California’s attorney general, backing a bill that set a similar service into the law. During her previous position, she has gone after for-profit colleges and schools. She once said that she would increase the average salary for teachers by 23%. 

The costs would be extremely high, a matter of billions a year. The Democratic Party believes that everyone deserves an education. Democrats plan to help families by sending their children to preschool for free and backing educators, school staff, and everyone involved.

Meanwhile, Republican candidate Donald Trump takes a different viewpoint. He values parental rights, putting a stop to teacher tenure, and banning male to female trans kids from female sports teams. By ending teacher tenure and using a system of merit pay, schools will have good principals and hard-working teachers. 

“As president, I will establish the national goal of providing school choice to every American child living in poverty. If we can put a man on the moon, dig out the Panama Canal and win two world wars, then I have no doubt that we as a nation can provide school choice to every disadvantaged child in America,” Trump said. 

One of the Republicans’ goals is to prepare students for the advancements in their careers by funding training programs and supporting project-based learning. By restoring parental rights they plan to enable more trust in parents. Children will be taught the basics of reading, history, science, and math. They will give all students the opportunity to pray. Anything that violates students’ religious freedoms will be considered discrimination. All kinds of schools will be considered, charter, public, homeschooling, etc.

The main difference between Trump and Harris is Harris’ strong actions to prevent student absentees and Trump’s actions against trans students. However they are both willing to put in place reforms to the school system.