Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
I vote in every election. When it comes to casting a ballot, whether it’s for president, Congress, state legislators, governor, mayor or city council, I am always going to vote based on what’s best for my child. There is nothing a candidate can say about any issue that will change this calculus. If I don’t believe my child will be better off with that person in office, they will not get my vote.
And I am not alone. There are millions of Americans — white, Black, Hispanic, Democrat, Republican, rural, suburban, urban — who will make the very same decision come November. Choosing to put our kids first is not a political issue; it’s just how we are wired.
This is why President Biden faces significant headwinds as we approach November. And so do other Democratic candidates up and down the ballot who seem to be unclear about the priorities of some of their most important constituents, parents.
Parents of K-12 students make up 40% of the U.S. electorate and according to a survey commissioned by the Harris Poll, 82% of them are willing to vote outside their political party based on the candidate’s position on education, which is a particularly acute issue for Black mothers like me.
For decades, we have been promised that brighter days are ahead and that elected leaders are working toward creating equity in areas like education and the workforce. But now we are tired of waiting. We want something better right now.
That is why it was initially encouraging to hear during the State of the Union address when President Biden announced a laudable goal of all children reading by the third grade. The optimism was short-lived.
Just a couple of days later, President Biden’s proposed budget called for cutting investments in charter schools, which predominantly serve Black and brown students.
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