Monday, October 28, 2024

School vouchers and choice face a ‘monumental’ 2024 election

Delivered every Monday by 10 a.m., Weekly Education examines the latest news in education politics and policy.
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By Juan Perez Jr.

An Omaha Public Schools bus passes a Harris-Walz campaign sign.

An Omaha Public Schools bus passes a Harris-Walz campaign sign on Oct. 23, 2024 in Omaha, Nebraska. | Mario Tama/Getty Images

THE VOUCHER VOTE — The use of public funds to pay for private education faces a critical test on the 2024 ballot.

Kentucky voters will weigh a state constitutional amendment that would allow lawmakers to fund private schools, an effort that has attracted millions of dollars in spending and pulled Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican Sen. Rand Paul into opposite sides of the fray.

Voters in Colorado will consider a similar ballot measure that would amend the state constitution to declare that children have a right to school choice, though critics have questioned the vague wording and uncertain implications of the proposal.

And in Nebraska, your host reports that a labor-backed fight to overturn Nebraska’s $10 million school voucher law has survived a state Supreme Court challenge, scrambled the state’s traditional political affiliations and fired up Democrats over the possibility of beating back a cause that's swept across conservative states.

“This election is monumental for the question of vouchers and choice moving forward,” said Tim Royers, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, a union that has organized a well-funded campaign to repeal the state law. “In Colorado and Kentucky, they put the measures on the ballot to expand school choice access. Part of the reason you’re seeing these ballot measures in multiple states is because, I think, they really want to win just one.”

Nebraska's anti-voucher campaign stands out not only for its potential impact on the state’s split Electoral College vote and congressional races, but for its high-profile test of local organizing. Still, state voucher supporters promise the debate will continue even if voters reject a program that uses public funds to pay for private K-12 school scholarships.

— “I don’t even think it matters if we get tromped on the ballot, because the generation of kids that are my kids’ age … they’re not going to put up with not having choices,” said Republican state Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, Nebraska’s most vocal champion of school choice initiatives. “Especially when all the states around us do. You’re going to have families move, that’s what will happen.”

Beyond the states, there’s plenty of action in Congress that could hinge on the outcome of November’s federal elections. POLITICO’s Jordan Williams took a deep look at The Educational Choice for Children Act of 2024, which would provide $5 billion in tax credits for donating to organizations that provide scholarships for K-12 education. The bill is the first of its kind to be cleared from a House committee.

IT’S MONDAY, OCT. 28. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. There’s a rare point of agreement among Republican and Democratic candidates this election year: America has a drug problem and it’s fentanyl traffickers’ fault. The consensus reflects the resonance of border control among voters and a hardening of the nation’s attitude toward addiction.

Reach out with tips to today’s host at jperez@politico.com and also my colleagues Becca Carballo (rcarballo@politico.com), Bianca Quilantan (bquilantan@politico.com) and Mackenzie Wilkes (mwilkes@politico.com).

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Higher Education

President Joe Biden speaks about student loan debt at Madison College, April 8, 2024, in Madison, Wis.

President Joe Biden speaks about student loan debt at Madison College, April 8, 2024, in Madison, Wis. | (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

MAKING A SAVE PLAN — A bicameral group of Democratic lawmakers is urging the Education Department to address uncertainty faced by millions of student loan borrowers affected by this summer’s federal appellate court ruling that blocked the Biden administration’s SAVE plan for debt relief.

— “While we recognize the Department of Education’s efforts to avoid penalizing borrowers by putting their accounts into forbearance, we remain concerned about the numerous challenges borrowers continue to face,” lawmakers led by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) wrote in a letter to the agency.

Lawmakers said that borrowers trying to obtain debt relief under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program are particularly affected because of the current forbearance period and accompanying disruptions in loan servicing.

They said their constituents are hearing “conflicting information from servicers” about whether any income-driven repayment plan applications are being accepted and processed, which means “borrowers are locked out of making progress toward the qualifying 120 monthly payments for PSLF eligibility even as they continue to serve our communities.”

— “We remain concerned about the importance of ensuring that all borrowers have adequate support and information to successfully navigate student loan repayment as litigation continues,” lawmakers wrote, adding that they want the department to plan for “a successful and immediate transition for affected borrowers” should a final court ruling strike down the SAVE plan.

CAMPAIGN 2024

ICYMI — Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, once a finalist for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential ticket, is touting his influence in pushing Harris to embrace a key issue at the intersection of economic and higher education policy.

Shapiro says he urged Harris to vow to get rid of rules that require a college credential for many jobs in the federal government, a point chronicled by POLITICO’s Holly Otterbein as part of a deep look into Shapiro’s home state campaign for the vice president.

Sure enough, Harris’ 80-page economic plan commits to eliminating four-year degree requirements that are not needed for half a million federal jobs and challenges businesses to provide “clear pathways to jobs without imposing unnecessary degree requirements.”

During a rally in northeastern Pennsylvania’s blue-collar city of Wilkes-Barre last month, Harris said she’d slash the requirements because “for far too long, our nation has encouraged only one path to success.”

During his gubernatorial bid, Shapiro promised to throw out college degree requirements for many state jobs, making it a key part of a closing TV ad . “I can remember some conversations I had early on in the campaign,” he told Holly, “about how they felt disrespected by the Democratic Party that only talked about helping people earn a college degree.”

Those conversations led to Shapiro privately urging Harris to take up one of his policies aimed at Pennsylvania’s working-class voters.

The bigger picture: White voters without a college degree, the core of former President Donald Trump’s base, make up a large portion of the electorate in the “Blue Wall” battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Some polls suggest that Trump has slipped a bit with those voters. If that proves true — though many Democrats contend those surveys underestimate his actual support — it could give Harris the opening she needs to take the White House.

A Harris spokesperson declined to elaborate on the vice president’s conversations with Shapiro about tossing the credential regulations at the federal level.

WHAT ABOUT STUDENT DEBT? — While Harris focuses on policies targeting Americans without a college degree as she courts moderate voters, The Associated Press notes she’s avoided talking about student debt cancellation on the campaign trail.

Her aforementioned economic plan mentions student loans only after a page of policies targeting workers without degrees. As for that Pennsylvania rally where she chided the country’s encouragement of “only one path to success? Student loans didn’t get discussed.

Of course, the administration is still pursuing a debt relief agenda. The Education Department on Friday formally announced proposed rules that, if finalized, would authorize student loan forgiveness for about 8 million borrowers experiencing financial hardship.

That proposal could allow the department to waive up to the entire outstanding balance of a student loan if it determines something like unexpected medical bills, high child care costs, or devastating economic circumstances from the impacts of a natural disaster are likely to affect the borrower’s ability to make full repayment.

Yet multiple Biden administration debt relief efforts have stalled in the face of conservative-led legal challenges. Just last week, during arguments over one of the lawsuits, three Republican-appointed judges in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals seemed dubious about some of the Education Department’s defenses of its popular SAVE loan repayment program.

Such legal uncertainty has probably contributed to Harris’ de-emphasis of cancellation, Michelle Dimino, education program director at the centrist think tank Third Way, told the AP.

Syllabus

— 'So much crazy': Why Obama says he's 'self-interested' in NC superintendent race: WRAL

— Book bans live on in school district now run by Democrats: The New York Times

— What election issues matter most to young first-time voters? The economy, Gaza, book bans, and more: Chalkbeat

— You may not need to borrow as much to pay for college. Here’s why: The Washington Post

— 'A sin on our soul': Biden delivers formal apology for Native boarding school abuses: The Arizona Republic

 

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Bianca Quilantan @biancaquilan

Juan Perez Jr. @PerezJr

Mackenzie Wilkes @macwilkes

 

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