School choice advocates did well in the midterms, writes Mike McShane, national research director of EdChoice, in Forbes.
Governors Ron DeSantis in Florida, Kim Reynolds in Iowa, and Chris Sununu in New Hampshire, all strong choice supporters, were re-elected by wide margins, as was Oklahoma's Kevin Stitt, who some thought might be upset by the state school superintendent.
Pennsylvania's Josh Shapiro "has emerged as a rising star in the Democratic Party," writes McShane. Shapiro "won handily after voicing his support for private school choice."
"Even in deep blue Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker, who was re-elected easily, came out in support of the state’s tax credit scholarship program in the campaign’s waning days," he writes. "This all bodes well for the future of school choice in red and blue states alike."
"The top three education issues among winners are school funding, early childhood education, and career and technical education," writes Andy Smarick, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute who analyzed would-be governors' campaign websites.
Republican winners talked about school choice, while Democrats pushed for more funding, writes Smarick. Candidates from both parties support creating more non-college pathways to the workforce.
What we need are basic schools to provide compulsory education in grades K-9, to be followed by most youth being guided towards next vocational centres for their tenth grades, when they should be starting apprenticeships (the more scholastically apt should accelerate through high college on to university degrees in three years, which pathway we facilitate at One World Education Centre).