The Republican Presidential Candidates’ Positions on Education and Immigration

Elections & Politics Policy Brief #83 | By: Abigail Hunt | June 27, 2023

Photo taken from: wired.com

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Summary

The ever-expanding field of 2024 Presidential candidates for the GOP nomination includes several current or former politicians, including governors from Arkansas, South Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, and North Dakota, an ex-President, an ex-Vice President, an entrepreneur of biotech and health care, a Midwestern businessperson, and a conservative radio host. As per usual, the candidate options tend to be older, white, and male, but there is some diversity with two African American and two Indian American candidates, one of whom is the only female so far in the running. With the number already in the double digits so early in the race, it looks to increase further before the nominee is found.  

Overloading the candidate pool may very well help cement another Trump-Biden head-to-head, only the future will tell. In the interim, it is necessary to know where each potential nominee stands on pressing issues of education and immigration. 

The following, which is gleaned from various press reports and candidate and government websites, is not a comprehensive breakdown of each candidate’s views but a taste of their policy. On educational policies, some candidates have supported an influx of monies to boost their state’s educational outcomes, and most candidates support funneling federal and state funds to private schools as well as public, based on the parent’s choice, laying the framework for state-funded religious schooling. Each candidate has something to say about immigration, but not one of them has a comprehensive and logical plan for how to address the problem in practice, other than to advocate for illegal immigrants to work their way toward earning citizenship in a society with little to no social support structures and few legal protections for most people and even less for undocumented workers. 

Education

In response to South Carolina’s abysmal education, Haley, as Governor, faced criticism for proposing a three-pronged $97 million educational funding plan which included more than $50 million on reading coaches and classroom technology. 

Burgum was a mover behind 2021 legislation for North Dakota education, providing $88 million in funding into career academies across the state allowing high school students to earn educational credit through vocational work, such as apprenticeships or internships, through club participation, or through other extracurriculars. 

Scott supported the CHOICE Act (Creating Hope and Opportunity for Individuals and Communities), which ensures or expands educational access for millions of students with disabilities, or from military or low-income families in the Washington D.C. area. 

DeSantis banned the teaching of critical race theory in Florida schools, stating that students should not feel guilt while learning history. He eliminated Common Core requirements and replaced it with benchmarks for “excellent student thinking” focusing on civics and history which, of course, was heavily edited. 

Hutchinson as governor signed a law increasing teachers’ salaries by thousands of dollars a year and proposed increasing state education funding by $550 million. 

Ramaswamy advocates for shutting down the Department of Education as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigations, stating that the Department of Education uses federal funding to blackmail local schools into pushing a certain political agenda, aka “wokeism.”

Elder, a public personality, opposes sex education in schools, does not believe in critical race theory, and thinks federal and state monies should fund children’s educations as private, charter, or public schools, depending on where the parents choose to enroll their students. 

During his time as Governor, Christie backed the proposal of a charter school with upgraded facilities to improve performance in an under-funded school district. While well-intentioned, the state’s attempt to repair the issue was too simplistic to address the complex set of underlying issues found in an impoverished community. A decade later, test scores have improved but the district faces issues with insufficient funding, decrepit buildings, and inefficient management.

Pence, while Indiana governor, increased the number of students receiving taxpayer dollars to pay for private school from 4,000 to more than 30,000. Despite facing opposition from others in his party, Pence created a pre-K program for Indiana, the first of its kind there, as Indiana had no state-funded pre-K program prior to 2014. 

Johnson wants to increase accessibility for children with disabilities, expand support for parents to access charter schools, and close public schools which consistently record inferior performance, which sounds a lot like cutting off educational access to any kids who live near those underperforming schools. 

Like the rest of the GOP candidates, Trump wants to expand school choice options and access to private schools. He promotes “patriotic education” curriculum, whatever that is, and advocates teaching “American exceptionalism” in schools, without any elaboration on what it means, why it is important, or how it will benefit students.

Immigration

Haley has plans for a national E-Verify program to verify a person’s immigration status, the same program she made mandatory for South Carolina employers, and wants to cut off access for illegal immigrants – at the border by reinstating the “Remain in Mexico” policy and by removing their access to entitlement programs. Like other candidates, she plans to defund sanctuary cities. Haley also told her state’s law enforcement officers to request, “Papers, please,” from anyone they suspect could be illegal. 

In April 2023, Burgum signed legislation enacting the Office of Legal Immigration in North Dakota’s Department of Commerce. The office was created to assist in the recruitment and retention of foreign labor and will include programs to support businesses and communities which pursue, employ, and integrate legal immigrants. 

In South Carolina, Tim Scott says part of the solution to the “crisis in the workforce” is going to a “merit-based immigration system.” While a merit-based immigration system could be imagined in such a way as to allow indentured servitude, Scott claims that after addressing another “crisis” at the southern border, we can solve the problem with his proposed system which will be “a marvel of the world.” We can only hope he is right. 

DeSantis made headlines transporting migrants from the South to sanctuary cities and has stated previously that he would support closing the 1,954-mile U.S.-Mexico border entirely, claiming we will finish the wall started decades ago. DeSantis signed a bill invalidating migrants’ ID cards and strengthening E-verify requirements. To assist with the overwhelm at the border, DeSantis sent troops from Florida to assist in Texas, as did Burgum from North Dakota and Hutchinson from Arkansas. 

Trump has a long history of referring to illegal immigrants coming across our southern border as criminals and rapists, as well as encouraging his supporters to chant, “Build the wall! Build the wall!” During Trump’s administration, 458 miles of the border wall were constructed, much of it in areas where pre-existing walls or barriers already existed.

Hutchinson splits from his counterparts in his view of refugees, stressing the importance of welcoming them to the country because they “love freedom and love America.” He advocates for U.S. involvement in international discussions. Like his compatriots, Hutchinson has no good plan of action to deal with the influx of refugees at the southern border. 

Ramaswamy states he understands the desperation of immigrants seeking refuge and new life in the U.S. – as the child of immigrants, it is true that, at the least, he has a clear understanding of his parents’ immigrant experience. Despite his insight, Ramaswamy has no innovative ideas to address immigration, advocating for a merit-based system. 

Elder supports eliminating birthright citizenship for children of immigrants, which would invalidate at least two of his competitors for the nomination, denying illegal immigrants access to education and hospital care, and requiring police to contact federal authorities when they encounter an undocumented individual.

Pence, like so many of the other candidates, invalidates sanctuary city designations, keeps Title 42 in place, reinstates the “Remain in Mexico” policy, and finishes the border wall. Pence also wants to deport any illegal immigrants who have committed crimes.

Christie believes immigrants should have a path to citizenship and suggests imposing fines on employers caught employing illegal workers. In 2015, Christie suggested a tracking program for immigrants who have overstayed their visas, but the suggestion was not well-received. 

Perry Johnson’s plan to deal with the immigration crisis is so undefined that a Google search returned this message: We did not find any results for “Perry Johnson” + “immigration plan.”