Ben Shapiro: Nothing would be better for American children than universal school choice 

Famed political pundit Ben Shapiro has praised the incoming Trump administration’s pro-school choice policy, saying it would be the biggest single improvement to American education.

“Taking kids out of the hands of the absolutely corrupt and terrible National Education Association and putting them in the hands of parochial schools because parents wish to send their kids to better schools – there’s very little that would be better for the children of America than universal school choice,” he said on Thursday’s episode of The Ben Shapiro Show.

“I know, I live in a universal school choice state, Florida, and it’s made the state way the hell better.”

With some of the most robust programs in the nation, Florida boasts over 350,000 students participating in one of its four state-funded educational choice programs. As a result, private and parochial schools are thriving.  

Shapiro also rebuffed criticism of Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, noting she had served on Trump’s cabinet in his previous term and led the America First Policy Institute as well. 

While over a dozen states have already implemented universal or quasi-universal school choice policies, Shapiro said national measures would make a huge impact.  

“Universal school choice fostered at the federal level, made easier at the federal level, would be a wonderful thing. If the Department of Education isn’t to be eliminated completely – it’s kind of difficult to eliminate departments [because] it requires 60 votes in the Senate in order to do that – if you’re not going to do that, at least the Department of Education can be thoroughly cleansed.” 

He mentioned the need to restore Title IX and clarify guidelines for colleges when students are accused of sexual abuse, as well as implementing consequences for colleges that allow antisemitism.  

Another issue McMahon will have to deal with is Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which critics say her predecessor Miguel Cardona made a royal mess of.  

“The truth is that FAFSA, which is the federal student loan program, should be looked at to determine whether in fact you are incentivizing people to take on debt that they can never pay back,” Shapiro argued.  

“Is that a smart thing, to continue to propagate a system that gets people hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt no matter how long it takes to pay off just to get a degree in a useless subject when in reality they should just be looking at entering the workforce?” 

The conversation about college debt is especially important as women, particularly black and Asian women, take on a higher proportion of debt than their male peers. They also pay it back at a slower rate.