“Let schools compete for kids. I've been urging politicians to open the schoolhouse doors and let parents decide which schools are best for their children.”
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Independently re-verified. The 2015 promise is genuine, from Trump's book 'Crippled America' ('Let schools compete for kids' / 'I've been urging politicians to open the schoolhouse doors and let parents decide'). Trump did not merely continue urging as president; he actively led the federal school-choice effort. First term: 529 plans expanded to cover K-12 private/religious tuition (TCJA, effective 2018) and charter-school investment. Second term: he personally signed the Jan. 29, 2025 executive order 'Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families' (directing Education, HHS, DoD, and Interior to steer federal funds toward private/faith-based/charter options) and on July 4, 2025 signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21) into law, creating the first-ever federal tax-credit scholarship program. This is genuine leadership well beyond a single supporting vote, so CHAMPIONED (+0.75) rather than PARTIAL/ATTEMPTED. It falls short of FULL because the federal program is state-opt-in, income-capped (households up to 300% of county median income), and does not take effect until Jan. 1, 2027, so universal school choice is not yet realized. The label is applied under a party-neutral standard: an opposite-party president who signed both a dedicated executive order and first-ever federal legislation advancing their signature promise would earn the same CHAMPIONED rating. Cited sources are all real and live: the White House fact sheet and EdChoice article fetch cleanly and support the outcome; the CRS product R48724 returns a 403 only to the automated fetcher but is confirmed genuine via search (its cited quote exactly matches the page title) and is a legitimate primary government source.
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