Trump’s most consequential national security meeting

Yet, years from now, the meeting that may turn out to yield the greatest good for America’s national security was a less-publicized roundtable on Jan. 31 in the Roosevelt Room, where the president gathered several governors, members of Congress, and leaders of education reform to push forward initiatives on school choice.

Two days earlier, Trump issued a bold executive order commanding his lieutenants to redirect federal funding toward school choice programs. In short order, it will set in motion much-needed federal agency planning to support this work, but it also marks the beginning of a counteroffensive against the country’s failing public education system, a crisis that is increasingly threatening national security.

Public schools are crumbling under bureaucratic inertia, the teachers unions’ death grip against reform, and deeply inefficient allocation of resources. At best, the Biden administration turned a blind eye to these failures. More often, it actively undermined educational advancement by supporting entrenched special interests over students and parents. Four years later, the results are in: Test scores for children plummeted, the achievement gap has widened, and students are ever more unprepared for the demands of the modern economy.

Our K-12 education system is falling behind in the subjects core to our nation’s economic and military strength. The latest Program for International Student Assessment rankings place the United States 31st in math, while China took the top spot. Meanwhile, China has doubled its Ph.D.s in STEM fields compared to the U.S., positioning itself to dominate the industries of the future, including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and biotechnology. This did not happen overnight. It was the direct consequence of the Chinese Communist Party’s investment policy and “Made in China” plan.

While the most dire consequences of America’s educational decline will be felt in the coming years, many of its effects are already upon us. The military is struggling to find recruits who meet basic math and literacy standards. U.S. intelligence agencies and the State Department are reporting critical shortages in foreign language proficiency. The semiconductor industry, vital to national defense, faces a looming 300,000-engineer shortage by 2030, jeopardizing efforts to re-shore manufacturing as Congress intended when it passed the CHIPS and Science Act. Our educational deficiencies are quickly becoming a clear and present danger to our nation’s geopolitical competitiveness.

No single policy can remedy this crisis, but school choice is indispensable for reversing America’s educational decline. The current system traps millions of students, particularly from the poorest families, in failing schools with no alternatives. By fostering competition, school choice forces schools to improve or lose students and their accompanying dollars. It breaks the monopoly of underperforming public schools, giving parents the power to select the best educational path for their children. These outcomes aren’t speculative. Studies have overwhelmingly found significant gains in academic scores for states with stronger educational freedom.

To put students first, the Trump administration should redouble efforts to expand school choice, prioritize STEM education, and modernize curricula to meet 21st-century demands. It should also push Congress to fund the remaining provisions of the CHIPS Act fully, investing in STEM workforce development from K-12 through higher education. We cannot afford to lose our students and top talent to bureaucratic red tape.

REPUBLICANS EMBRACE TRUMP EDUCATION REFORMS AS DEMOCRATS PREPARE TO RESIST THEM

Failure to act will have dire consequences. If current trends persist, China will surpass the U.S. in technological and economic power, weakening America’s ability to lead on the world stage. The time for half measures is over. Policymakers at every level must follow the Trump administration’s lead and put students, not teachers unions, first. 

“Experts” might not think a school choice roundtable was significant in the scope of history, but parents and the millions of children in failing school districts across the nation seeking to fulfill their dreams and aspirations might beg to differ — our national security depends on it.

Gabriel Noronha is the executive director of POLARIS National Security. He previously served as the special adviser for Iran at the State Department under President Donald Trump.