Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley said parents should be at the center of a child’s education on Wednesday night.
Haley stood with six other GOP candidates on a stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, debating the future of the United States and the differences across the GOP candidates in the second debate of the Republican primary. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, fielded a question on education that began with a recognition that Haley’s state still has not enacted school choice, a conservative policy growing in popularity in the GOP.
Haley responded that South Carolina did not adopt school choice under her tenure, but it “wasn’t for lack of trying.” She then laid out her priorities for education should she take over the White House.
“We need to do reading remediation. We need complete transparency in the classroom. No parent should ever wonder what’s being said or taught to their child in the classroom,” she said.
She then endorsed school choice, though it’s unclear how far she would push the issue at the federal level. She did say that many federal education programs should be turned over to the states.
“We need to make sure that we have school choice so that there is competition. We need to move all the programs from the federal government down to the states and let states decide what education looks like in their states,” she said.
The former U.N. ambassador said more focus should put on vocational education for students who want to go into blue collar jobs such as plumbing and welding.
“We need to start building things in America again. Let’s put vocational classes back in our high schools and let’s get our kids building the things that we know that we can make. When we start to focus on that and really bring in that parental involvement, that’s when we’ll start to see a difference,” Haley said.
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Haley ended her answer reinforcing a parent’s importance in a child’s education. She also said that too much time in wasted on diversity and equity education in classrooms.
“We’ve got to get parents back included. We’ve got to quit spending time on this DEI and CRT, and instead focus on financial literacy, on digital literacy, and on making sure our kids know what they need to do to have the jobs of the next generation,” Haley said.
