With the school year kicking off soon, many are still wondering what education will even look like. Most school districts have left parents in the dark regarding much of the details surrounding either virtual or in-person learning, and school boards around the nation haven’t even put the basics of schooling to a vote.

America’s student population of around 67.8 million have been hit hard by the changes caused by the Coronavirus pandemic and subsequent government responses to it. Primary, secondary, and college students have had to shift their learning from the traditional classroom, to an unfamiliar virtual one. If there’s one thing for certain however, it’s that children are very adaptable to changing circumstances, while the educational system very much isn’t.

Now that we are months into quarantine for COVID-19 with no immediate end in sight, school districts across the nation have begun accepting the reality that they won’t be returning this year. As of April 26th, 43 states, along with 4 U.S. Territories, and the District of Columbia, “have ordered or recommended school building closures for the rest of the academic year, affecting approximately 45.1 million public school students.” These sudden and mass closures have forced schools to reevaluate everything.

At his State of the Union address last week, President Trump highlighted the need for school choice across America, and rightly so. There is nobody who knows better what education is most suitable for their children than parents and the student themselves. Certainly, the government does not know best and we should do all we can to put this decision in the hands of those closest to the students in our communities.

FreedomWorks Foundation's Regulatory Action Center (RAC) is driving comments to the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support scaling back Michelle Obama's school lunch program. This program is a waste of resources and puts government in a role better played by parents. You can support this change and make your voice heard HERE.

FreedomWorks is proud to announce that our bill of the month for September 2019 is the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success (A PLUS) Act, H.R. 3149, introduced by Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), which seeks to provide states with the option to opt out of onerous Obama- and Bush-era federal education requirements.

On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community, I urge you to contact your representative and senators and ask them to cosponsor the Higher Education Reform and Opportunity (HERO) Act, H.R. 4098 and S. 2339. Introduced by Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), the HERO Act would allow states to tailor education to the unique needs of students, by developing their own systems for accrediting educational institutions instead of being restricted fully by the federal Department of Education.