COLUMBUS, Ohio — National Republicans are poised to support ''universal school choice'' as part of the policy platform they adopt at next week's convention in Milwaukee, a goal supporters see as the culmination of decades advocating for parents' autonomy to pick their children's schools. To opponents, it's a thinly veiled blueprint for gutting public education.
The term can mean different things to different people — from erasing school boundaries, to open enrollment, to being able to curate your child's individual curriculum, to parental control over K-12 course content.
But education experts across the political spectrum interpret the GOP platform's wording as favoring the type of approach adopted in states like West Virginia and Ohio, which make available taxpayer-funded vouchers, or scholarships, that can follow a child regardless of income to any public or private school.
''In our way of thinking, this is kind of your money, your children and your choice for where they want to go to school,'' said Lisa B. Nelson, CEO of the American Legislative Exchange Council, which launched an Education Freedom Alliance in January to fight for just that. About a dozen states now have such programs, and proposals are in play in another 16, according to the alliance.
Nelson said this is the first time the GOP platform has gone beyond merely supporting school choice to calling for it as a universal option. It remains unclear how that would come to pass, given the platform also calls for shuttering the U.S. Department of Education, founded in 1979, and sending education policy-making ''back to the States, where it belongs.''
Republican Donald Trump's presidential campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the platform.
''Republicans believe families should be empowered to choose the best Education for their children,'' the platform says.
James Singer, a spokesperson for President Joe Biden's re-election campaign, said eliminating the department — which oversees Head Start, administers college financial aid programs, conducts education research and enforces civil rights laws — ''isn't just bad policy, it would rip vital support away from our most vulnerable children, leaving them less likely to graduate from high school or attend college.''