The Push To End Public Schools

Despite the fact that the words "school choice" still get tossed around, most of the noisiest figures in the school choice movement have no actual interest in choice, no desire to see traditional public education existing side by side with a variety of different education options. Instead they're pushing for institutional capture, a system of taxpayer-funded private schools that push right wing christianism and christian nationalism alongside a public system that has been largely dismantled even as it has been brought into line with that same right wing ideology.

If you want to see this laid out, I cannot recommend enough a new ProPublica piece by Megan O'Matz and Jennifer Smith Richards. What they make exceptionally clear is that Linda McMahon did not go to Washington to shut down the Department of Education, but to dismantle public education entirely.

You should read the article. Really. And let me tempt you with some highlights that show where McMahon and her crew of joyful vandals are headed.

O'Matz and Richards note that McMahon has brought on at least 20 appointees from way out in right field including, as we have noted before, Lindsey Burke, the education chief at the Heritage Foundation who's serving as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Programs (even though she's still listed in her Heritage Foundation post). She was the author of Project 2025's education plan, which (spoiler alert) looks a lot like what is happening. 

Burke remains a huge fan of voucher programs; O'Matz and Richards correctly describe a recurring theme of getting more families to leave public school. Quoting Burke in a speech last year, "I'm optimistic that, you know, five years from now a majority of kids are going to be in a private school choice program."

Noah Pollack was a co-founder of Jewish Voices for Trump and an "advisor" to multiple right wing groups; he's now a senior advisor of the Ed Department. O'Matz and Richards found this quote from a 2024 podcast appearance, at which he bemoaned what he sees as progressive control of schools:

And so the work that I do is trying to come up with creative policy ideas to stop that, to turn back the tide, to figure out ways that conservatives can protect these institutions or build new institutions.

The writers also track McMahon back to her work with the America First Policy Institute, an advocacy outfit formed in 2020 as a sort of holding pen for Trump admin folks and other MAGA. AFPI produced a paper in 2023 that rejects the notion of any sort of collective responsibility for educating all children argues that “the Bible makes it clear that it is parents alone who shoulder the responsibility for their children.” That message is very much at the heart of the dismantling movement, which is all about a policy of "I'll take of my own kids and what Those People do is not my problem." This aspect of vouchers is not discussed nearly enough-- when you accept a voucher for your child, everyone else gets to wash their hands of you. You are on your own and your child's education is your problem, and not the government's or anyone else's.

There's lots more-- did I mention that you should read this piece-- but I want to highlight one more. One of the few figures in the story that was willing to talk to O'Matz and Richards was Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for America who was featured prominently in the department's "End DEI" initiative and is hooked up with Heritage these days. 

Asked what percentage of children she imagines should be in public schools going forward, Justice, who is now with The Heritage Foundation’s political advocacy arm, told ProPublica: “I hope zero. I hope to get to zero.”

“If America’s public schools cease to exist tomorrow, America would be a better place.” 

That's what they want. Not choice. Not diversity. Not a broad expanse of many educational approaches and ideas. Just one choice. Theirs. And an end to public schools.