PARKER: Arkansas proving American education can be fixed

Per Gallup, only 27% say they have high confidence in U.S. public schools.

Published Jul 26, 2026  •  Last updated 24 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Photo by Kayla Bartkowski /Getty Images

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Amid celebrations of America’s 250th birthday, Gallup serves up a sobering portrait of general dissatisfaction with the nation’s core institutions. “Confidence in U.S. institutions Remains Near All-Time Low,” reports Gallup.

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Of 14 core institutions — banks, big business, labour, the presidency, Congress, schools, health care, etc. — only 27% say they have “a great deal/quite a lot of confidence,” one point above the all-time low for this average.

In 1979, the percentage expressing “a great deal/quite a lot of confidence” in these 14 core institutions stood at 48%.

One explanation is the double-edged sword of the growth of government. More government means more inefficiency. At the same time, the more government control grows, the harder it is to change and reform. More government, more interest groups, more lobbying to keep the status quo. Let’s consider education.

Per Gallup, only 27% say they have high confidence in our public schools. The highest it has been since 1993 was 41%.

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Any marketplace in which three-quarters of consumers are unhappy with the product they’re getting would see intense supplier activity to change what they deliver. That’s when the marketplace is free.

But when the market is dominated by government and unions, the best interests of the consumer — in the case of education, parents and children — do not rule. Powerful interest groups that profit from the status quo use money and power to block change.

When only 27% are satisfied with our public schools, how can we possibly understand that only 28 states have opted in to the new Education Freedom $1,700 federal tax credit to contribute to scholarship funds to help parents privately educate their children? The answer is that 25 of the 28 states that have opted in are Republican states. Democrats are subservient to the hundreds of millions of political contributions from the teachers’ unions and their agenda to indoctrinate our kids with progressive values. The results — pathetic test scores — speak for themselves.

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But now we can see what happens when governors really care about children and families, put learning as their priority, and let the marketplace work to give parents freedom to choose what they see as best for their kids.

Under the leadership of Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Arkansas established its Education Freedom Accounts program, providing parents with scholarship funding to choose where to send their children to school.

Data is now coming in for the program, now in its second year.

Per a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, students participating in the Education Freedom Account program “outperformed nearly 60% of students nationwide in math and English on standardized assessments.”

Further, per the report, there are almost 50,000 students now using these accounts and 81% of Kindergarten-Grade 12 parents support the program — up 20 points from 2023. The Education Freedom Accounts provided $6,684-$7,627 to each student for educational expenses.

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New York state has not opted for the Education Freedom Tax Credit.

Investor Jeff Yass noted in the Wall Street Journal that, despite New York City spending $42,000 per student in its public schools, scores in math and reading are dismal.

Yass suggests to New York City socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani that the $42,000 be split in half, giving a scholarship voucher worth $21,000 for each child and the other $21,000 into a savings account in the child’s name. After 13 years, when the child graduates high school, there would be $300,000 accumulated — assuming a paltry 2% annual interest rate — for college.

We celebrate America’s 250th birthday with joy, even though a lot is not what it should or could be.

Freedom is precious and magnificent because it leaves the door perpetually open for renewal.

One party — the Democrats — thinks that freedom is the problem. Republicans know that freedom is the answer.

Young new Republican leaders such as Sanders are shining examples of the great potential ahead.

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