WAUKESHA, Wisconsin — Already a hero to fans of school choice, Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday went to Wisconsin, the state that invented the alternative to private and public schools, to cheer on the system and champion the competition it breeds.
Accompanied by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Trump senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, the vice president hosted a roundtable at the Waukesha STEM Academy and told the audience, “I was for school choice before it was cool.”
He noted that as governor of Indiana, he expanded school choice and that it was a top issue he first discussed with then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump in 2016 when he was being interviewed for the No. 2 job.
Wisconsin was one of the surprise wins for the Trump-Pence team in 2016, and the campaign is banking on a repeat. After the school-choice roundtable, Pence hosted his first of the 2020 campaign “Faith in America” rallies.
Pence said that when he told Trump this week that he was heading to Wisconsin, “I think he sounded just a bit jealous. He loves this state.”
At the hourlong event 30 minutes from Milwaukee, Pence talked up the administration’s proposal of the $5 billion Education Freedom Scholarships, also addressed by DeVos. “Every parent should be able to choose where their kids go to school,” he said.
Mostly, he voiced strong support for the expansion of school choice as a way to help make all schools better.
“Competition makes everything better,” he said. “The Bible says, ‘Iron sharpens iron.’ So one person sharpens another,” he said, referencing Proverbs 27:17.
Conway talked about the freedom school choice gives parents and noted the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on education on every student.
She also gave Pence credit for moving on school choice early when he was governor of Indiana, revealing that the state became the top choice enroller soon after he became the chief executive. “That’s not coincidence. That’s causation,” said Conway. “That’s a mission.”
In his final comments, Pence referred to the “forgotten child” in the education system. He said that the goal is to empower parents “so there are no forgotten children, no futures lost.”
