Scott unveils education plan stressing ‘family first culture’

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) on Monday unveiled an education plan he says will promote a “family first culture,” knocking the Biden administration, Big Tech and teachers unions as he calls to “empower parents.”

“Teachers’ unions, Big Tech, and Joe Biden are on a mission to make parents less important. I have a bold agenda to support and empower parents — from the classroom to the locker room to the smartphone,” Scott said in a release.

Included in Scott’s 12-point plan are goals to “restore American childhood” and “let girls and boys be girls and boys, not guinea pigs.”

As a senator, Scott introduced legislation last year to pull federal funding from schools with transgender support policies that don’t require parental consent. 

The plan sets out to “save Title IX and women’s sports” because many in the GOP take issue with transgender athletes, and to support crisis pregnancy centers, which purport to be reproductive health care clinics but aim to deter abortions. 

Scott introduced legislation earlier this year to require online app stores to display where apps are developed and owned, a bid that came amid heightened concern over the Chinese parent company of TikTok, the app popular with young Americans. 

His “Empower Parents Plan” calls for the same labeling and sets goals to “stop Big Tech from stealing kids’ attention spans, China from stealing their privacy, and predators from stealing their future.”

The plan also calls to “break the back of the teachers’ unions” and advance school choice, and to “end the attacks on excellence by rejecting the false notions of ‘equity.’”

Scott has made education a main focus along the campaign trail. He’s also hit his fellow GOP presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, over new standards for teaching Black history in the state.

“The radical Left is seeking to make parents less important right before our eyes. When I’m president, there will be total transparency in our schools. I will empower parents to know what their kids are being taught — allowing them to opt out,” Scott said Tuesday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Democrats say the South Carolina senator’s new plan is “waging war on public education.”

DNC spokesperson Ammar Moussa said students, teachers and parents “deserve better than Scott and MAGA Republicans’ extreme agendas” on education. 

“Tim Scott has spent his career working to defund public education and gut programs that millions of students across the country rely on, all to divert taxpayer dollars to wealthy private schools,” Moussa said in a statement.