Education

Senator Blackburn Advocates for Parents’ Rights During National School Choice Week

Senator Blackburn Visits University of Tennessee, Knoxville Campus

Senator Blackburn Speaks to Harding Academy 8th Grade Class in Washington, D.C.

Senator Blackburn Celebrates Achievements of Students, Parents, and Educators in Carroll County

The federal government should let states innovate and provide common-sense solutions to their school systems. In the United States Senate, Senator Blackburn has worked to expand school choice so that parents can choose the education that best prepares their child for success. She has also supported initiatives that champion constitutional principles, hard work, and the American dream while rejecting radical Left indoctrination.

What Senator Blackburn Is Doing To Support Education

As a mother and grandmother, Senator Blackburn knows that parents play a vital role in shaping and supporting their child’s educational journey. Regardless of zip code or socioeconomic status, parents — not government — should always have the final say in what kind of schooling their child receives. Senator Blackburn has been an ardent supporter of school choice and introduced the Educational Choice for Children Act, bicameral legislation to expand education freedom and fund scholarship awards for students to cover expenses related to K-12 public and private education.

Senator Blackburn understands that the free and open exchange of ideas is essential to democracy and professional growth. As students pursue their education, they should never face limits on what, when, where, or how they learn. In recent years, open debate on college campuses has been stifled by the radical Left and institutions which seek to suppress conservative thought in higher education. To combat this, Senator Blackburn introduced the Campus Free Speech Resolution to encourage institutions and students to pursue truth through the free exchange of ideas. Additionally, as the Chinese Communist Party seeks to infiltrate our K-12 classrooms and university campuses with communist propaganda, Senator Blackburn led the CONFUCIUS Act to reduce Communist China’s influence on U.S. schools and prohibit federal funding to colleges and universities that host Confucius Institutes.

As an alternative to China’s propaganda-fueled Confucius Institutes that threaten free speech, Senator Blackburn has pushed for U.S. colleges and universities to support the U.S.-Taiwan Education Initiative, which can help teach American students Mandarin, culture, and history in a censorship- and coercion-free environment.

Furthermore, in many public schools, activists and teachers’ unions are demanding Critical Race Theory (CRT) be taught in the name of social justice. In 2021, after the Department of Education proposed federal funding to support the teaching of radical and divisive curriculum like CRT, Senator Blackburn joined more than 30 of her Senate colleagues in introducing a resolution to condemn the use of CRT in K-12 schools and teacher training programs.

Following Hamas terrorists’ vicious attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the United States witnessed a surge of antisemitism and antisemitic acts against Jewish Americans, particularly on college campuses. Student groups across the nation participated in vile protests celebrating the attacks, created encampments on school property designed to block Jewish students from attending class, and even issued death threats.

In response, Senator Blackburn introduced the Stop Antisemitism on College Campuses Act, which would rescind federal education funding for colleges and universities that peddle antisemitism or authorize, fund, or facilitate events that promote violent antisemitism. Additionally, her bipartisan resolution denouncing antisemitism at institutions of higher education and pushing university leaders to voice their opposition to antisemitism on campus unanimously passed the U.S. Senate.

Senator Blackburn also led 25 of her Republican colleagues in sending a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, urging them to restore order to campuses that were effectively shut down by antisemitic mobs targeting Jewish students.

Students deserve to feel safe from acts of violence, and parents should never have to worry about their children being harmed, especially in schools where they should be able to learn, play, and grow free from danger.

Senator Blackburn has been a proponent of increasing protection on campuses through the implementation of school safety officers. In 2022, she introduced a measure to allow for the training and hiring of veterans and former law enforcement officials to serve their community, help protect schools, and keep children safe.

Following the heartbreaking shooting that occurred at the Covenant School in Nashville in 2023, Senator Blackburn immediately took action, building upon her previous efforts to keep children safe at school, and introduced the Securing Aid for Every (SAFE) School Act. This legislation would establish a $900 million grant program to allow both public and private schools to train and hire veterans and former law enforcement officers to serve as school safety officers, hire off-duty law enforcement officers, and provide funding to harden schools and increase physical security.

Senator Blackburn has also led legislation aimed at strengthening cybersecurity in K-12 schools, as cybercriminals are rapidly evolving their strategies to cause chaos and disruption. From 2016 to 2021, there were over 1,300 publicly disclosed cyber incidents involving education organizations across all 50 states, including ransomware, data breaches, and denial-of-service attacks. The bipartisan Enhancing K-12 Cybersecurity Act would aid K-12 schools in deterring these attacks by promoting access to information, providing new cybersecurity resources, and putting necessary procedures in place to protect our students’ data and keep sensitive information private.

Additionally, as the Biden administration allowed over 10 million illegal aliens to invade our nation, many of whom are unvetted and unknown to law enforcement, Senator Blackburn introduced the Enforcing Rule of Law on Campus Act, which would withhold federal funding from any college or university that employs illegal aliens on campus.