Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who is expected to run for president in 2016, released a K through 12 education plan through his national policy nonprofit on Monday morning. The plan would expand school choice policies to children nationwide and push back against Common Core, among other significant educational reforms.
“All parents deserve to choose the education that fits their children best. Any change to education policy should be measured, first, by whether it will empower them to choose or take that choice away,” Jindal writes. He goes on to say that public funding of education should follow a child to their school of choice, including certain private and charter schools. A somewhat similar portable federal funding proposal is included in a recent bill introduced by Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., the chairman of the House education committee.
Jindal’s plan also advocates for the creation of education savings accounts, which allow parents to spend their portion of education funding on private school tuition, online courses, homeschooling or other educational needs. Similar accounts have been in use in Arizona for students in poor schools or who have special needs. Jindal’s plan would give all children this option.
Other provisions that would encourage school choice include lifting regulations on private schools, ending caps on the number of charter schools and expanding scholarship programs for schools of choice.
“Neither ZIP code nor family income should determine a child’s chances in life,” Jindal writes.
The plan goes on to advocate repealing Common Core standards. Jindal says he supports high academic standards, but says parents should be able to choose to support Common Core schools or not by being able to choose their child’s school. “While states can and should raise academic expectations for students, the rollout and unraveling of this national initiative has made it abundantly clear that the U.S. education establishment too often does not respond to parents and local voters. Instead, federal mandates, money, and threats bend officials’ necks stiffly towards Washington,” Jindal writes.
Jindal also wants to limit the federal role in education. “Instead of extending the federal reach into every school, Congress should instead return to states their citizens’ education money as block grants,” he writes.
Jindal also touted the economic consequences of better education. “One estimate found that just closing half the distance between the United States’ international test scores and high-scoring Finland’s could add more than $50 trillion to our gross domestic product (GDP) between 2010 and 2090,” the plan said.
The plan would directly affect teachers by raising their academic requirements, ending teacher tenure and granting right-to-work for teachers who don’t already work in non-right-to-work states.
The education plan is the fourth national policy plan to come out of Jindal’s policy non-profit, America Next. The other plans outlined Jindal’s energy, defense and healthcare policies.
