EXCLUSIVE – Sen. Tim Scott will unveil a new plan on Monday that the Republican presidential candidate aims to “defend America’s children, empower parents, and protect kids online.”
Scott will announce his proposal, which was shared first with Fox News Digital, as he meets with parents, homeschool advocates and voters during a campaign swing through his home state of South Carolina, a crucial early voting state that holds the first southern primary in the GOP presidential nominating calendar.
“Teachers’ unions, Big Tech, and [President] Joe Biden are on a mission to make parents less important,” Scott charged in a statement.
And the conservative senator showcased that “I have a bold agenda to support and empower parents — from the classroom to the locker room to the smartphone. We must empower parents and give them a choice, so that every child has a chance.”
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Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, a Republican presidential candidate, holds a town hall in Charleston, S.C. on August 28, 2023. (Tim Scott campaign)
Scott’s proposal is the latest example of Republicans pushing to elevate the role of parental control of public schools in recent years.
The first component of Scott’s “Empower Parents Plan” is defending children with a “family first culture.”
Scott, a rising star in the GOP and the only Black Republican in the Senate, calls for restoring “American childhood and let girls and boys be girls and boys, not guinea pigs” and “Save Title IX and women’s sports — if God made you a man, you play sports against other men.”
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He also spotlights that he will “stand with crisis pregnancy centers” and pledges to stop the Department of Justice, which he argues is “turning a blind eye to far-left threats and vandalism.”
Scott also vows to empower parents by defending their ability to know what their children are hearing and reading in school.
He also wants to “empower every family the right to opt out of propaganda that attacks their values and religious liberty,” and pledges to “break the back of the teachers’ unions and enact nationwide school choice,” which are staples of the conservative movement.
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., reacts before speaking at a Fair-Side Chat with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds at the Iowa State Fair, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
The senator also wants to give parents a greater ability to decide whether to send their children to public, private, charter, or STEM schools, or homeschooling.
Scott argued that he will “replace indoctrination with education. ABC, not C.R.T.”
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Scott’s third component will also please conservatives, as he aims to “stop Big Tech from stealing kids’ attention spans, China from stealing their privacy, and predators from stealing their future.”
The senator calls for mandating country-of-origin labeling on every app so parents are fully informed and making big tech do more to keep kids safe online.
Republicans have been showcasing their efforts to defend parental rights in recent years, helping to turn public education into a political battleground. The push came in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which triggered school closures across the country, upending families and putting schools in the spotlight.
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Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s victory over former Gov. Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s high-profile 2021 gubernatorial election – in a contest where Youngkin made parental rights a centerpiece of his campaign – energized the GOP.
Fast-forward to this year and House Republicans – in one of their first major legislative pushes after taking over the chamber’s majority – passed mostly along party lines a “Parents Bill of Rights.” The legislation, which aims to boost the information parents’ receive regarding their children’s education, fulfilled a pledge they made in last year’s midterm elections.
Former President Trump gives remarks at Moms for Liberty’s annual summit in Philadelphia on June 30, 2023. (Fox News Photo/Joshua Comins)
On the presidential campaign trail, the GOP White House contenders this year have been trying to one up each other in highlighting their commitment to boosting parental rights.
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Additionally, five Republican presidential candidates – including GOP nomination commanding front-runner and former President Trump – spoke in-person in June in Philadelphia at the annual summit of Moms for Liberty, a conservative leaning parental rights organization that has quickly become very influential in Republican circles.
Democrats argue that the widespread push by Republicans is a mission by the GOP to take aim at what they consider an anti-woke agenda and weaken public education.
And the Democratic National Committee took aim at Scott in responding to his plan.
“Tim Scott has spent his career working to defund public education and gut programs that millions of students across the country rely on, all to divert taxpayer dollars to wealthy private schools,” DNC spokesperson Ammar Moussa charged in a statement.”
And Moussa argued that “our students, teachers, and parents deserve better than Scott and MAGA Republicans’ extreme agendas that would devastate public education and harm education across the country.”