(LifeSiteNews) — Former Republican U.S. President Donald Trump, the far-and-away front-runner to secure the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election, promised Thursday to “support the growing homeschool movement” and become a “champion” for families that educate their children at home if he regains the White House.
“To every homeschool family, I will be your champion,” Trump declared in a video statement posted to social media on Thursday.
“When I am re-elected I will do everything I can to support parents who make the courageous choice to homeschool,” he said.
#Agenda47: President Trump’s Pledge to Homeschool Families pic.twitter.com/qCvPRSCfRI
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) September 14, 2023
“As President it was my honor to support America’s homeschool families and to protect the God-given right of every parent to be the steward of their children’s education,” Trump said in the video, noting that rates of homeschooling have soared in the wake of the “China Virus” epidemic.
PBS reported in May that “homeschooling has been on the rise with an estimated 30% increase in enrollment since the beginning of the 2019 school year.”
“Under the Trump tax cuts, we allowed families to use 529 education savings accounts [ESAs] to spend up to $10,000 a year, tax-free, on tuition for grades K-12,” the former Republican president explained, calling the provision “a tremendous win for school choice.”
However, Trump said, “that benefit did not apply to homeschoolers” at the time.
“So, to support the growing homeschool movement, in my next term I will immediately fight to allow homeschool parents the same incredible benefit: $10,000 a year per child, completely tax-free, to spend on costs associated with homeschool education,” he said.
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Trump also promised to “work to ensure that every homeschool family is entitled to full access to the benefits available to non-homeschool students, including participating in athletic programs, clubs, after-school activities, educational trips, and more.”
In closing, Trump urged supporters not to vote for Democrats, because “[t]hey are looking to destroy you.”
“Do not vote Democrat, do not vote for ‘Crooked Joe [Biden].’ Vote for ‘Honest Donald,’” Trump said, laughing. “Thank you very much.”
As LifeSiteNews has extensively reported, parents disturbed by the indoctrination of their children into radical LGBT ideology, sexually explicit content, and inaccurate and divisive racial agendas, as well as the forced compliance with draconian COVID-19 mandates, has spurred a thriving movement to secure parental rights in the realm of public education or withdraw children from the public school system entirely.
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On Monday, left-wing news outlet Vox highlighted the “remarkable series of victories” conservatives have won in providing parents with “alternatives to the public school system,” something critics of the conservative push allegedly argue is “the destruction of the common good.”
In the article, Vox stated that conservative advocates of school choice have enjoyed their “most successful year ever,” racking up a number of legislative victories beginning in states like West Virginia and Arizona amid the “aftereffects of the Covid-19 pandemic and an unfolding culture war” that “shook up the status quo.”
The outlet noted that school choice policies have come in the form of ESAs, which work to fund students, not schools, putting the power in the hands of the families to decide where their child should be educated and by whom.
“With ESAs, parents who opt out of the public school system get several thousand dollars in an account that they can use for private school tuition, homeschooling, or other education-related expenses,” Vox reported.