DNC education platform big on past accomplishments, defends federal department

Democrats at their party's convention in Chicago have unveiled an education platform that combines old priorities such as universal pre-K and free community college with slams against Republicans over Project 2025 and “private-school vouchers.” 

Instead of new policies, Democrats focus their platform on the accomplishments of the past four years and measures such as President Biden’s student debt relief, offering few details on how their initiatives would be implemented but a defense of the federal government's role in education.

“What struck me was there's not a whole lot of specificity when it comes to education policy, especially for K-12 grades, it's kind of more — it's more talking about what they've done and what they support and oppose conceptually than it is laying out specific policies,” said Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. 

At the party convention level, he added: "I don’t think that's especially unusual."

What precise policies there are include universal pre-K, trade schools and community colleges; more funding to combat chronic absenteeism and help students with disabilities; expanding Pell Grants; and improving the environment for incoming and established teachers.  

“The one difference that caught my eye the most from the 2020 to 2024 platform was that the discussion of charter schools was pulled way back in 2024. I think they have a less antagonistic stance toward charters than they did four years ago, which may be the product of some pushback they got,” Valant said.  

“I thought they went a little bit light when it came to just sort of communicating that commitment to public schools. It's there for sure, but I was maybe expecting that to be a little bit prominent,” he continued.

In 2019, Education Next found 48 percent of people supported the formation of charter schools. An EdChoice poll from this year, in partnership with Morning Consult, found 70 percent of parents support charter schools.  

While student loan relief has been a top priority for Biden, forgiving more than $160 billion in debt, the party did not endorse the idea of universal forgiveness under a potential President Harris, instead touting what has already been achieved on the issue.

“These savings will transform lives, freeing people to buy a house, to start a family, or to launch a business with new hope,” the platform reads.  

Democrats in their platform avoid many of the culture war topics that were held prominently in the Republican one unveiled last month, though at the Democratic National Convention, some have taken on those issues directly.  

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday chastised GOP moves against transgender students and African American studies.

"Americans with LGBTQ kids don't want them facing discrimination at school because the state sanctioned it," he said. 

"Americans don't want their kids to be taught in history class that slavery was a jobs program," the governor added at another point in a dig at Florida. 

At their own convention in July, Republicans solidified a platform that focuses on parental rights, keeping transgender girls out of women's sports and deporting "pro-Hamas radicals" from college campuses.

Democrats aimed specific criticisms at Republicans in theirs, particularly going after President Trump for his support of abolishing the Department of Education and school choice.  

“We’re going to end education coming out of Washington, D.C. We’re going to close it up — all those buildings all over the place and people that in many cases hate our children. We’re going to send it all back to the states,” Trump said in a campaign video.  

That idea is one of the central proposals of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's policy blueprint for the next conservative president. Trump has sought to distance himself from the project, though Democrats note the large number of members of his administration who worked on it, as well as his support for many of its ideas individually.

“Where the Democratic Platform fights to advance this bold agenda, Donald Trump and Project 2025 are planning to strip away Americans’ freedoms and dismantle our democracy. The contrast could not be more stark,” the Democratic National Committee said in the press release for its platform.  

School choice, meanwhile, has been on a winning streak since COVID-19. 

At least six states have implemented universal education savings accounts (ESAs) that allow parents to take a certain amount of money from the government to homeschool or send their children to private school. Other states have passed ESA laws for different groups of students.  

“We oppose the use of private-school vouchers, tuition tax credits, opportunity scholarships, and other schemes that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from public education,” the Democrats' platform reads.