Since the U.S. Department of Education opened in 1980, Republicans have wanted to take it apart. This year’s Republican platform is no different. It would cut financial aid benefits that help the neediest students, hobbling our nation’s economic future. Ohio Sen. JD Vance, in his educational ascent from the Rust Belt working class to vice-presidential candidate, should know this better than anyone. His unwillingness to say so is part of the inauthenticity that voters tell pollsters they find “weird” and out-of-touch.
Millions of Americans like Vance have lifted themselves out of hardship using federal education funds. I know this because I am one of them. As an education policy scholar, I know that Vance and I were lucky to be born in a country that makes such stories possible.
