Democrats should run hard on a key issue where Republicans face a core weakness, former conservative turned anti-GOP columnist Jennifer Rubin wrote for The Washington Post on Monday — education.
Fundamentally, she argued, one issue that crosses party lines is that parents want to be assured their kids are getting the best schooling they can — and Republicans' obsession with siphoning money from public education, and eliminating the department that oversees it, can be turned against them.
"Other than eliminating funding for schools (or having some other part of government administer funding), depriving disabled kids access to schools and shutting down a useful source of data on research and school reform, abolishing the [Education] Department would not change much. It certainly would not improve the quality of education," wrote Rubin.
Democrats should not try to compromise with the GOP on the issue, she wrote. Rather, "Democrats would be wise to listen to parents," with a Gallup poll from August showing broad dissatisfaction and worry among parents about the state of public education — but a desire to boost these programs, not cut them.
Republicans have pushed a war on "wokeness" in schools, with far-right groups like Moms for Liberty trying to censor school libraries — but it remains a fringe position, Rubin wrote.
"Given a choice between too much 'wokeness' and too little funding, only Republicans think the former is more to blame for the state of things (55 percent to 35 percent); voters generally (52 percent), including independents (53 percent), cite lack of resources."
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"Republicans often insist that 'throwing more money at the problem' won’t fix it," wrote Rubin. "But the correlation between school success and spending is strong.
"Of the top 10 states in school performance (Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Minnesota, Connecticut, Virginia, Wisconsin), six are in the top 10 (with Washington at 11th) for resources. (Different surveys have slightly different rankings, but these schools generally are at the top.) It’s no coincidence that eight of the top 10 have Democratic governors, who have made education a clear focus."
Ultimately, by hammering a message about saving and fixing public education rather than attacking it, Democrats can regain public trust — and tarnish Team MAGA, wrote Rubin.
"If Republicans persist in cutting money for children to enrich billionaires, Democrats will have a golden opportunity to focus on parents’ real concerns and plutocratic MAGA economics," she wrote. "Sometimes, good policy is good politics."
