Trump says 'school choice' is the civil rights issue 'of all time in this country'

Critics say 'education freedom' scholarships divert funding from public to private schools

Donald Trump said school choice was the civil rights issue "of all time" as he announced reforms on Tuesday to address police brutality following global outrage over the killing of George Floyd.

During his White House remarks, Mr Trump said his administration was fighting for school choice, "which really is the civil rights of all time in this country".

"Frankly school choice is the civil rights statement of the year, of the decade, and probably beyond," the president said.

"Because all children have to have access to quality education, a child's zip code in America should never determine their future and that's what was happening."

It is the second time in the past week that Mr Trump has positioned school choice in the company of civil rights milestones like the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, same-sex marriage and the civil rights movement itself.

At his "Transition to Greatness" round table on police reform in Dallas on Thursday, 11 June, Mr Trump renewed his call for Congress to enact school choice because access to education "is the civil rights issue of our time".

"It really is it's the civil rights issue of our time when you can have children go to a school where their parents want them to go, and it creates competition, and other schools fight harder because all of a sudden they say, 'Wow, we're losing it, we have to fight hard,'" Mr Trump said.

"But there are groups of people against that. You have unions against it. You have others against it. And they're not against it for the right reasons, they're against it for a lot of the wrong reasons."

Opponents to the school choice policies argue they would divert money from public schools and towards private schools.

The Trump administration is pushing its "Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act" that it says will give one million children freedom to attend a school of their choice through scholarships for tuition, out-of-district transportation, tutoring and apprenticeships.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has welcomed Mr Trump's comments on what she calls "education freedom", and says it is the pathway to a stronger country.

Mr Trump continued his push for school choice in the frame of a civil rights issue on Tuesday as he signed the executive order on policing after almost three weeks of both peaceful protests and violent riots across the country.

"We have tremendous opposition from people who know they shouldn't be opposing it. School choice," Mr Trump said.

"All children deserve equal opportunity because we are all made equal by God. So true."