by Arianna Prothero
Education Week
September 9, 2016
GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump said Thursday that, if elected, he’d be the “nation’s biggest cheerleader for school choice” and offer states the chance to use $20 billion in federal money to create vouchers allowing children in poverty to attend the public, charter, or private school of their choice.
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Early Reaction
Jeanne Allen, the founder of the Center for Education Reform, which supports school choice, called the idea “pie in the sky”, given the current Washington political dynamic. “Congress typically doesn’t write $20 million checks for programs without a real mandate,” she said.
But she also said the plan is very ambitious, and noted that Trump did not say the $20 billion for his school choice idea would have to come from the current U.S. Department of Education budget. “It’s dramatically more money than any other candidate has talked about for school choice,” Allen said.