Biden Wants Schools That Please Politicians, Not Parents

The Biden administration is frequently accused of hostility to school choice—or at least to choice for families that can’t afford to pay private tuition on top of taxes for government institutions.

In their defense, the president’s allies claim they favor options but want to ensure that such schools are accountable for the dollars they spend and the results they produce. But Biden and company show their hand by dismissing the role of parents and students who are best positioned to assess education offerings; they prefer rules that make educators responsible to the government instead of to families.

For evidence of the president’s opposition to school choice, you don’t have to look far. On the campaign trail in 2020, then-candidate Joe Biden said, “When we divert public funds to private schools, we undermine the entire public education system. We’ve got to prioritize investing in our public schools, so every kid in America gets a fair shot. That’s why I oppose vouchers.”

“Why are unions and Democrats so opposed to giving poor children a choice in schooling?,” The Washington Post editorial board, usually a Biden ally, asked last year. It warned of the peril faced by federally funded scholarships to send struggling D.C. children to private schools in “House Democrats and the Biden administration quietly laying the groundwork to kill off this worthy program.”

“I am not a charter school fan,” Biden insisted about the publicly funded but independently managed schools, “because it takes away the options available and money for public schools.”

More recently, the administration had to backtrack on proposed rules for federal grants to charters that would have given traditional school districts virtual veto power over the competition. The final rules are less draconian, though still intrusive.

When pressed, Biden and company frame the hurdles they place in the way of alternatives in terms of making voucher recipients, charters, and private schools responsible for their conduct and results.

“In the context of these rules we’ve really focused on three goals, right, the first is how do we think about fiscal responsibility, accountability, and transparency,” Roberto Rodriguez, assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, explained at a recent Brookings Institution charter school conference