Byron Donalds highlights school choice in RNC speech

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) used his Republican National Convention prime-time speech Monday night to highlight the importance of school choice and the influence of teachers unions on education .

" Joe Biden and Kamala Harris sent their kids to high-priced private schools, but since they are in the pocket of the far-left teachers unions, they trap poor kids like me in failing schools with no way out," Donalds told the crowd in Milwaukee. "They say they're pro-choice, but not if you want a choice over what your kids are taught."

The Florida Republican talked about growing up poor in Brooklyn, New York, where his mother pulled him out of public school in the first grade so he could attend a better-performing private school.

"When I was in the first grade, my mother took me out of public school because she could see that public education was failing me," Donalds said. "I needed to be challenged, and I needed the opportunity that only a private school could provide. My mother is an educator, and she truly believed in my potential, but Democrat politicians wanted to trap me in a failing school, but my mom fought for me."

He added that while his mother and grandmother were able to cobble together the money to pay for private school, many people do not have the opportunity to pull their children out of underperforming public schools — something Republicans have long sought to change with school choice.

The Republican Party platform has made K-12 education a top issue this year, a major change from platforms in years past. One of the planks advocates "universal school choice," including allowing families to use 529 education savings accounts to fund homeschooling as well.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The platform also stresses the importance of involved parents as foundational in the upbringing and education of their children, and it vows to strip public schools of taxpayer dollars if they teach controversial subjects such as critical race theory and gender theory.

The platform does not just seek to allow children to attend the school of their parents' choice but also advocates cleaning up schools that have underperforming teachers, putting teachers on merit pay, and ending teacher tenure, which would involve attaching teacher pay and job security to job performance.