Education

Education is a crucial issue that ties into the broader economy; children who are poorly educated are not given the opportunity to succeed as adults. There are significant gaps in urban and rural education systems that disproportionately impact poor and minority students.

There have been many proposed solutions, ranging from national standards set for the entire country, to more individualized education such as magnet schools, private schools, charter schools and homeschooling. Some other proposals at the state and federal levels are vouchers for low-income students, educational savings accounts, and parent trigger laws. Vouchers, which have currently been implemented in fifteen states and Washington, D.C., give low-income students an amount of money to attend a private school of their choice if their current school is failing. Education savings accounts have been implemented in states such as Indiana and Arizona, and parents are given autonomy on how they use the money, whether it be for homeschooling, charter and private schools, or even their assigned school. The parent trigger law allows parents whose children are in a failing school to sign a petition to flip that school into a charter school.