Move Beyond the Rhetoric: Gen Z’s Education

Gen Z has become a force to be reckoned with when it comes to reshaping the outcome of American elections. The newest voting bloc Gen Z has broken a record on our youth voter turnout being higher than any other generation in the 2022 midterm elections. We are only getting started as there are less than 90 days until the 2024 presidential election. This election will drastically for better or worse change Gen Z’s most pressing issues such as education. 

Both presidential candidates former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris offer differing visions for the American education system. Trump provides a version of education where the Department of Education is abolished. This means Trump’s vision for education is to join one of Project 2025’s proposals in getting rid of the department’s and increasing privatizing school choice programs. 

This means that public money can be freely exercised to help fund private schools and even though Trump expressed that no child’s zip code should determine their success, his administration worked to gut away $5 billion in education programs to support federal voucher programs instead. He pledges to finish the job for his 2024 administration in privatizing education and focusing on providing opportunities to make higher education more affordable. 

Harris’s vision, if she wins, is to increase funding for kindergarten to 12th grade and combat segregated school programs. This means Harris plans to also have universal preschool support and expand on the Biden Administration’s student loan forgiveness program to help communities afford higher education. Her presidential campaign priority for education is to invest more in historically Black colleges and universities. 

A part of her stance on school curriculum is opposing book bans and instead, protecting the teachings of Black history and the “critical race theory.” However, Trump’s education stance is to refocus on the establishment of his administration’s efforts on “The 1776 Commission” which promotes “Patriotic Education.” This entails less focus on race in America and oppressive topics on segregation etc and focus on a nationalist curriculum. 

These two presidential candidates’ visions for the American education system are different in ways that whoever wins the 2024 election will have a significant change in how we go about education. 

Sixteen-year-old Ankita Jaikumar said she is worried what the next president’s education stance will be. 

“As a junior in a Georgia high school, if this election is won by a candidate that has promised to defund the Department of Education, I’m not sure if we’ll even have a functioning educational system in four years,” Jaikumar said. “Even more than that, we as a nation have failed our students. How is it possible that an average fifth of our population by state is essentially illiterate? That, to me, is inexcusable and something that this upcoming election can only harm or improve.” 

Education remains a top issue for Gen Z when dealing with educational affordability, school curriculum, and how students are impacted by it. In understanding the two presidential candidates’ stances on education, we can help individuals be aware and thus, cast an educated vote that is based on what aligns with them. 

Ashleigh Ewald (She/her/hers) is a Georgia-based journalist who is graduating early from Oglethorpe University in December. Follow her on IG: @ashleighewaldofficial. 

Edited by Nykeya Woods