Trump would make US education system less fair, first lady Jill Biden argues in Phoenix

First lady Jill Biden criticized former President Donald Trump, her husband’s rival in this year’s presidential election, for his efforts in office to direct public money toward private education.

Speaking in Phoenix on Friday, she connected the topic to the former president's wider platform on education and labor policy.

In a world "where Donald Trump is reelected, we get chaos and division. A world in which public schools are privatized and their funding is gutted. Teachers' unions are marginalized. Lesson plans are censored. And books are banned,” she said at the Arizona Education Association’s annual meeting at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel.

Governed mostly at the state and local level, education policy has not been a major focus of the 2024 presidential campaign so far. But the two candidates have starkly contrasting visions and track records on the issue.

Candidates differ widely in education policy

While in office, Trump’s Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, sought to create federal vouchers for private schools and boost funding for charter schools, though Congress nixed some of her most far-reaching proposals.

Republicans have pursued similar policies at the state level, leaving Arizona with one of the largest school voucher programs in the nation.

Voucher supporters have argued that competition from private schools improves the quality of education overall, and that offering poor families the opportunity to choose to attend a private school is a matter of social justice. Critics say it drains public resources and fails to address disparities in public schooling.

“Donald Trump does not want to strengthen our public education system. He wants to destroy it. Just look at who he appointed to be Education Secretary,” the first lady said, pointing to DeVos' longtime advocacy for school voucher programs.

"Here in Arizona, you're battling against school vouchers and a state legislature that's more interested in dividing educators and parents than addressing things like educator pay or classroom size," she said.

Trump’s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.

Trump has called for closing the U.S. Department of Education altogether. He wants to turn over education to the states, which already control funding and school curriculum, and give parents more of a say in running schools.

President Joe Biden, on the other hand, has steered the country’s education system more through federal action and investment in public schools.

One of his signature priorities while in the White House has been addressing student loan debt. With his effort challenged or blocked in court, he has said alternative actions by his Education Department have resulted in $160 billion in debt relief for nearly 4.6 million borrowers as of May 2024.

That includes more than 50,000 people in Arizona, his administration has said.

Trump has argued those measures are unfair to people who already have paid back their student loans.

Biden has also proposed expanding free community college, and his administration has partnered with the country’s community colleges to meet rising labor demand for his manufacturing-oriented policy agenda.

On Saturday, the first lady, who herself teaches English and writing at a community college in northern Virginia, will be a special guest speaker at Mesa Community College's graduation ceremony.

'I desperately need your help': President Joe Biden launches Latino outreach campaign in Phoenix

At the Friday event, hosted by Arizona's union for public school employees, she also connected education policy to the administration's stance on labor unions and wealth inequality.

"In what world should a schoolteacher pay a higher tax rate than a billionaire?" she said.

Arizona’s Grand Canyon University has become a flashpoint in the partisan conflict over federal education governance. The U.S. Department of Education has announced a $37.7 million fine against the school for "deceiving" students in its marketing of doctoral degrees.

School officials and some Republican lawmakers have charged it based on the school’s religious affiliation, despite the agency’s investigation finding that the vast majority of students in the program paid an additional $10,000 to $12,000 more than the advertised cost in tuition alone.

How many times has Jill Biden visited Arizona?

The first lady is one of many White House surrogates who have recently visited Arizona, a swing state in this year’s presidential election. In 2020, Biden defeated Trump in Arizona by less than half a percentage point.

She visited Mesa last year to highlight a scholarship program that offers some local high school students two tuition-free years at Mesa Community College. In March she visited Tucson to argue Trump is “dangerous to women” in a speech that was interrupted by protests over U.S. support of Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

USA TODAY contributed to this report.

Laura Gersony covers national politics for the Arizona Republic. Contact her at lgersony@gannett.com or 480-372-0389.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Trump would make US education less fair, Jill Biden says in Phoenix