While President Trump went back and forth between politics and partisanship during his State of the Union speech, one subject he brought up should be bipartisan: school choice.
Two of Trump’s guests at the annual speech were Stephanie Davis and her daughter Janiyah. A fourth grade student, Janiyah is one of an estimated 50,000 students in Pennsylvania on the waiting list to receive tax credit scholarships, according to the White House. Because of school choice legislation that was vetoed in the state, thousands of children are stuck in schools that don’t work for them.
“The next step forward in building an inclusive society is making sure that every young American gets a great education and the opportunity to achieve the American dream,” Trump announced, rightly positioning school choice as a nonpartisan issue. “Yet, for too long, countless American children have been trapped in failing government schools. To rescue these students, 18 states have created school choice in the form of opportunity scholarships.”
Then, Trump introduced the Davises: “Janiyah’s mom Stephanie is a single parent. She would do anything to give her daughter a better future.”
Of course, Trump couldn’t bring them to Washington, D.C., without helping them out. He announced that an opportunity scholarship would become available for Janiyah. He said he pushed Congress to create the same opportunity for a million other children by passing the Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act, “because no parent should be forced to send their child to a failing government school.”
The crowd cheered for Janiyah and her mother in a heartwarming moment, but it shouldn’t have taken presidential intervention to get this fourth grader a scholarship. Offering vouchers to students attending subpar schools should be a bipartisan issue. Trump is right: School choice is simply the “next step forward in building an inclusive society.”
