The Founding Fathers never envisioned that Executive Orders would be a major policymaking tool, circumventing legislative and executive deliberations, political stalemates, and partisanship. But recent history has deemed them essential levers if there is to be urgent action on the most important matters of the day.
With the nation’s graduation rates a joke, proficiency rates at an all-time low, and students attending schools that are not only unsafe but unproductive, it’s time to take a page out of the entrepreneur playbook and put innovation to work for American education. President-elect Trump is capable of doing just that in a mere 10 days in office, not to mention his first 100 days, if these basic prescriptions are among his:
1. Investigate public sector union efforts to frustrate the Janus decision.
In 2018, Illinois public employee Mark Janus walked out of the U.S. Supreme Court to cheers for fighting the inane requirement that public employees be required to pay agency fees to unions and their political efforts by extension. In June of that same year, a court decision was found in favor of Janus v. AFSME, allowing employees to no longer have to pay those fees. For the teaching profession, it was the most profound decision in history.
Unfortunately, the impact of this case decision was never communicated to the vast majority of teachers.
In addition, the unions mislead and create obstructions for teachers who want to exercise their rights, with some teachers being told to fill out extra paperwork and even being told that not doing so would put their job in jeopardy. After telling one teacher about her rights to recoup her freedom and union dues at a Christmas party that year, she reported being “informed” that all teachers would suffer if she exercised her rights under Janus.
Freeing teachers from these onerous rules would not only save them money but would also turn them into the education entrepreneurs focused on student learning that they aspired to be upon entering their classrooms. Reducing the union’s monopoly and finances would enable more teachers to be masters of their own classrooms and programs rather than having to toe the line on collective bargaining directives that dictate everything from operations to when they can go home.
In the president’s directive, he should also direct every agency involved in education or labor programs to inform public school teachers of their rights under Janus.
2. Direct the Justice and Education Departments to communicate and enforce Supreme Court Decisions upholding the federal constitutionality of school choice programs.
The Biden Administration was uncharacteristically quiet on two major decisions that happened during their Washington days. Had the decisions gone the other way they would’ve communicated this to every policy maker, lawyer, and parent in the country.
Eight years ago, I recommended that the Justice Department move to challenge the 19th century era Blaine Amendments, which operate in 37 states to discriminate against the legitimate choices of parents who would rather send their students to a private or parochial school than their zoned public school.
Most lawyers friendly to this issue did not think it was a federal case, but in the case of Espinoza v Montana Department of Revenue – when opponents successfully blocked a school choice law from implementation – parents took their case to the Supreme Court and won. In 2021, parents won on similar grounds in the Maine school choice case, Carson v. Makin.
Put simply, choice is constitutional.
Yet even though the Blaine amendment has been found to be a bigoted, intentionally discriminatory practice unconstitutional by all measures, state courts, like South Carolina’s, continue to allow legislative action changing the way money is distributed for education to be overturned. State courts are not permitted to willingly defy US Supreme Court precedent. Let’s give them the benefit of doubt and just put state courts on notice that they should be enforcing decisions finding that Blaine amendments were deliberately and unconstitutionally created to discriminate against religion, specifically the Catholic faith.
3. The 3 Rs – Reallocate, Reverse and Roll-Out
On Day 1 the President should issue an Executive Order to free schools and families from the following actions which directly impact the growth of education opportunity:
- Reverse the Biden Administration’s Charter School Program (CSP) regulations, which have allowed local school districts and authorizers to reject charter school applications on the basis of bureaucratic animus and arbitrary community input. The directive should also include reducing the number of staff in the CSP office, which spend time exerting influence over state charter laws.
- Rollout a new office called the White House Initiative on Education Innovation and Opportunity for Everyone combining Biden-era White House Initiatives singling out specific sub-groups, to solicit and evaluate the federal impediments to education transformation and school choice. Reallocate positions from existing offices rather than add new positions.
- Reallocate an additional $20 million in discretionary funds from the Executive Office of the Secretary to fully fund the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP). The program has been level funded at $17.5 million since 2019, reducing the number of families served and the ability of students to continue to access life-saving choices.
These are just a few critical actions that can be taken in the early days. The new Administration must also act on a significant number of other inequities and injustices on the road to unwinding an unwieldy department and to mitigate the pernicious effect that many federal laws and policies have had on education progress in the states. For example, they should evaluate if there is any legal or legitimate basis for denying equal access to federal dollars for state-authorized education alternatives, like charter, private and microschools. Why would any child’s education be worth less money than another simply because they do not attend a traditional public school?
In the meantime, the three-step plan above can unleash the thousands of proven models and 21st century approaches that have created transformational learning for thousands of students.
Free the best and the boldest, and you’ll see the fruits of education entrepreneurship emerge in every corner of the country.