Opinion: Our education system must be reformed

"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."

- Frederick Douglass

My name is Duke Buckner. I'm the Republican Party's nominee for U.S. House of Representatives in South Carolina's Sixth Congressional District. Today, I want to speak about childhood education in the Sixth District and our nation. We must declare a national education crisis in our country. If we are to save our children, something must be done. Students are not getting the education they deserve in our nation and the Sixth District.* The S.C. Education Scorecard for 2022-23 shows that in the 6th District, 61% of eighth-grade students can't read and write at grade level; 75% of eighth-grade students are not proficient at math; and 76% of students have a D average or are failing in their knowledge of U.S. History and the Constitution.

These numbers are catastrophic and unacceptable. Each is about 40% below the statewide average for South Carolina eighth-graders. Also, Sixth District math and history scores have shown significant declines over the past six years.

Curiously, the graduation rate in Sixth District schools averages 76%. How is that possible when most students perform so poorly in reading, math and U.S. history?

The answer is that our Sixth District schools are not performing as well as they should. This is a national, as well as a local, problem. The consequences for our children could not be worse. "Low literacy" rates correlate significantly with "higher unemployment; reduced income; higher incarceration rates; and poorer health outcomes." Sadly, the people in charge of our nation's educational system do not hold the interests of our children foremost.

There is a reason Vice President Kamala Harris began her presidential campaign by appearing before the nation's largest teachers' union. Such unions are an important constituency of the Democratic Party. Those unions, along with Democratic politicians, college and university education departments and the U.S. Department of Education, are closely allied.

Their alliance values progressive indoctrination above practical education. It values Democratic political power above our children's well-being. It seeks to take over the parents' role in imparting values to our children. And all too often, in the most open attack on the family, the alliance seeks to sexualize children. It is fair to say that Democratic politicians, the teachers' unions leadership and the rest of this alliance combine to be the greatest obstacle to improving education in the Sixth District and throughout the nation.

Perhaps the single best example of the problems with this alliance is the solution the South Carolina Education Association - the type of union that receives such strong support from the Democratic Party - proposed to address how South Carolina's children are failing in school. The SCEA recommended that the state stop all standardized testing. That is stunning! The only thing the SCEA recommendation would do is hide public education's failures while allowing the failures to continue in the shadows. It would be hard to imagine something that would do more long-term damage to our children and families in the Sixth District. We already saw this before with the removal of the high school exit exam. This resulted in students receiving a high school diploma but lacking the basic skills they needed to prepare them for their chosen field.

There are many plans to improve education in our state. The most promising at the state level was passed into law last year to give families control over where to send their children to school.

A bill passed [in 2023] establishes Education Scholarship Trust Funds in South Carolina, or what some might know better as school vouchers.

Supporters believe this will give thousands of students educational opportunities they would have never had.

Unfortunately, the teachers' unions could not tolerate that. The SCEA immediately sued, asking the state Supreme Court to strike down the law, which it just recently did.

At the federal level, where the government controls money and education policies, the Department of Education has failed in its mission to better the education of America's children. Republican politicians want to abolish the Department of Education. This will return federal education funding and control over education to the states where it belongs. I support that or if possible reforming the Department of Education so that educational standards are raised and not constantly lowered.

The second proposal at the federal level comes from the Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump. He believes parents should directly elect their local schools' principals. Anything that would make schools more responsive to parents rather than unions or politicians deserves serious consideration.

Let me make a promise to the people of the Sixth District. If you elect me as your representative, I will never place partisan politics over your children's educational needs. I will always vote to validate the parents' right to raise children according to their values, not those of a teachers' union.

Lastly, none of what I have written here is meant to criticize those individual teachers who love to teach and despite the politics being forced into education manage to connect with and motivate students. I was a teacher once, too. I loved what I did and hoped that I made a difference in the life of my students.

I'll close by directing you to a fascinating Ted Talk from Brandon Griggs, a young man who managed to achieve despite his deeply disadvantaged background. Unsurprisingly, he credited much of his success to a middle school teacher who cared about him and held him to high - and objective - performance standards.

* The Sixth Congressional District cuts across several school districts. This essay does not include data from those school districts that mostly fall outside the congressional district.

Duke Buckner is a candidate for the 6th Congressional District of South Carolina.