Hi everyone,

Well, we’re into the holiday season, and in the post-election period that means cabinet and other appointments (I know, nothing says holiday spirit quite like it, right?). Over the last few weeks, it’s become clear that Donald Trump’s appointments mainly come from a roster of his personal loyalists.

Linda McMahon and the Billionaire Education Agenda

Trump has followed exactly that pattern by naming Linda McMahon his nominee to head the U.S. Department of Education. McMahon ran the Small Business Administration during the first Trump term, and media reports have already made much of her thin education record. To me those resume items are far less important than her most recent role as chair of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI)—a dark money, vaguely focused outfit founded in the months following January 6.

What this pick means is that, perhaps even more than the right-wing obsession with dismantling the very department McMahon is slated to lead, school vouchers will be item number one for Trump’s education agenda. McMahon founded AFPI with at least $20 million of her own money, partnering with Texas billionaire Tim Dunn in the effort. Dunn is the Texas-specific force working, as the New York Times put it: “to send public funding to private schools and to increase Christianity’s role in civic life.”

My take on all of this is that the McMahon pick is about creating space to push these kinds of policy priorities while making sure the nominee doesn’t embarrass Trump. Expect to see a host of right-wing idea people and political hatchet-men coming in and out of the Department of Education. They’ll be looking to carve up, reorganize, and shut down programming they don’t like. They’ll reduce the Department’s budget ask to Congress and try to push the limits of any and all discretionary authority they have on, say, Title IX protections on gender-related discrimination.

But the point of McMahon is to reward a long-time Trump loyalist who will let all of those things happen while the big, chief policy goal of a federal, tax credit voucher scheme gets priority. That scheme, currently called the Educational Choice for Children Act, which would establish a broad federal voucher program, is currently in play in Congress.

It’s important to remember that Congress doesn’t belong to Donald Trump. So federal vouchers are hardly a foregone conclusion—especially if members of both parties stand up for their districts, like they did at times during the first Trump administration by rejecting cuts to public education.

More on Election Results and Next Steps

And on that note, I wanted to use the rest of this newsletter to make a point about the politics of the billionaire-backed school voucher push. Basically, that vast amounts of billionaire spending are necessary to ram voucher bills through state legislatures precisely because voters hate these schemes.

That argument also includes the idea that voters in places like Texas selected pro-voucher legislators. But it’s important to remember how long and how much money from right-wing billionaires even that result has taken—among otherwise friendly Republicans. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has tried for nearly two years to ram vouchers through.

And just as it did in other states, the Texas voucher push has cost millions in both in-state and out-of-state billionaire funding to come even as close as they have. What do those millions buy? Mostly favorable results in Republican primaries to try to weaken conservative opponents to vouchers.

But as we know, actual voters tend to reject vouchers when given a direct say on them as opposed to a choice between legislators hand-picked by billionaires. Vouchers went 0-3 on Election Day on three statewide ballots: Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska. In Colorado, the result was a bit closer, in part because the ballot language was vague and contained a statement about parents’ right to direct their child’s education (who’s against that?!).

In Nebraska and Kentucky, clear majorities of voters rejected vouchers while—and this is key—backing Donald Trump for the presidency. In Nebraska, 57% of voters actually pulled an existing voucher law off the books. In Kentucky, 65% of voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have expressly authorized the state to spend public dollars on private school tuition. All 120 Kentucky counties voted against that plan, 119 of them by double digits.

With those results, the streak continues: vouchers have never survived a statewide ballot where voters get to weigh in directly on these schemes.

Public Schools are Everywhere

It’s really pretty simple. There are so many communities across the country where public schools hold a special place in folks’ hearts. And in their economies. Voters may not say so directly, but they’re perceiving what researchers find: that public school investments not only raise academic achievement, they also reduce crime rates, for example, and even may lead to greater health and life expectancy.

And on the flip side, as voters may remember all too well from tough times like the Great Recession, cutting public school funding hurts kids and families.

Look, there’s a reason real voters keep defeating vouchers even when they support Trump or other right-wing politicians on other issues. Public schools are everywhere—in red communities and blue communities. Just before the election, the New York Times published a massive new data tool showing where voters live with respect to key services, industries, and professions. So, for example: lots of public relations professionals in blue areas, lots of taxidermists in red spots, lots of Lululemons in blue areas, lots of Hardee’s and Sonic Drive-Ins in red.

But you know what’s everywhere? Public schools. Check it out yourself. Alongside McDonalds (really, is that a surprise?), public schools are the one spot in the Times data tool you can’t really find a political pattern for based on left/right voting.

(And on the flip-side, check out the new Public Funds Public Schools data tool to explore where private schools are, and aren’t, to see where parents would actually be able to use a voucher if those schemes came to town).

Look, there’s work to be done. The extent to which public schools are able to fulfill their mission to serve everyone—every child—is going to be determined to a large degree by whether they’re given the support and the investment needed to do so. The data and the evidence are clear on that. It’s also the right thing to do.

Voters spoke on Election Day. They didn’t choose everything I had hoped they would, but by and large they chose to keep and improve and ultimately fight for their public schools.

Have a wonderful start to the holidays, I’ll get back to you again soon!

Josh

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