Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) announced a new education and technology plan on Monday designed to “defend America’s children, empower parents, and protect kids online” as he continues to run for the GOP nomination in the 2024 presidential election.
“Teachers’ unions, Big Tech, and Joe Biden are on a mission to make parents less important,” Scott said in a news release. “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.”
Scott, 57, announced his latest campaign talking point after finishing the first Republican Party presidential primary debate last week, where he received positive reactions, but also faced some criticism for failing to rise to the moment among a cadre of governors and former governors racing in the GOP primaries.
But as he returned to the campaign trail, the lawmaker plans to meet with parents, homeschool advocates, and voters amid a six-day, three-state blitz, beginning with his home state of South Carolina, which holds the first Southern primary in the GOP presidential nomination.
The 12-point plan, which he dubs a “parent’s bill of rights,” consists of three components broadly focusing on a family-first culture that has been under attack in Democrat-run states and left-wing school districts pushing identity politics and radical gender theory on children that attacks parents’ values and religious liberty.
The GOP candidate said he would restore American childhood by letting “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.”
Scott said he would enact a nationwide school choice option to “break the back” of the teachers unions and “end the attacks on excellence by rejecting the false notions of ‘equity’ and the Left’s attacks on honors classes.”
The plan would also work on rebuilding the Department of Justice, which Scott said has turned “a blind eye to far-Left threats and vandalism” on conservative organizations like crisis pregnancy centers.
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“We have a lot of work to do to make sure that we have the Department of Justice restoring confidence and integrity — not just by not weaponizing itself against political enemies, but also protecting conservatives and conservative organizations by having lady justice return that blindfold to her eyes,” Scott told The Daily Wire’s Morning Wire podcast.
Under Scott’s proposal, the U.S. Senator also intends to target big tech companies accused of damaging children’s attention spans while foreign apps like TikTok have allegedly stolen their privacy for the Chinese Communist Party as online predators destroy their future. Apps would also be required to inform users with a country-of-origin label.
“You should know where your app comes from,” Scott said. “And that would allow parents to be in greater charge and control over who has access to their children’s information.”
The Democratic National Committee criticized Scott’s education and technology plan within hours of its release, claiming it furthers the GOP’s widespread agenda to wage war on public education and gender identity in children.
“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 said in a statement on Monday. “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.”