The battle for education freedom is heating up, and the Club for Growth is stepping into the arena with a powerful new push to expand school choice in two heartland battlegrounds: Indiana and North Dakota. With President Donald Trump leading the charge to dismantle the federal Department of Education and return power to parents and states, this latest effort is perfectly timed — and long overdue.
School choice has emerged as the defining civil rights issue of our time. And according to Club for Growth President David McIntosh, the fight is just getting started.
“School freedom is the defining civil rights issue of the generation and is only continuing to expand across the country,” McIntosh told The Daily Wire. “With the additions of Indiana and North Dakota, Club for Growth has now engaged in 10 states working to pass and protect education freedom in 2025.”
This isn’t about politics — it’s about parents reclaiming their God-given right to guide their children’s education. And the Club is putting its money where its mouth is, launching targeted ad campaigns during high-profile Sunday political shows, and running all week long on Fox News and conservative radio.
In North Dakota, lawmakers are wrestling with multiple school choice bills aimed at creating scholarship and voucher programs for families — a lifeline for parents stuck in underperforming schools. As the Club’s ad bluntly puts it: “From crops to crude to championships, North Dakota’s hard to top. But when it comes to choice in education, we’re 48th in the nation.”
That stings — and it should. Families in North Dakota are tired of being told to settle for the status quo, and state legislators in Bismarck now face a clear choice: empower parents or continue appeasing the teachers’ union lobbyists.
Meanwhile, in Indiana, Governor Mike Braun is championing a bold, universal voucher proposal that would give every student in the state access to school choice. In a new ad airing in Indianapolis, Braun doubles down: “Parents are in charge of their own kids’ education. Let’s put parents in the driver’s seat with universal school choice.”
This kind of leadership is exactly what Americans voted for when they put Trump back in the White House — a break from the union-driven, bureaucratic mess that has turned so many of our schools into ideological battlegrounds instead of places of learning. And the Club for Growth isn’t new to this fight. They’ve already helped school choice laws cross the finish line in Tennessee, Wyoming, and Idaho, and are working hard in Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, and beyond.
Let’s be honest: the public school system has become a bloated, unaccountable monopoly. For decades, it’s been protected by powerful teachers’ unions that care more about politics than kids. As McIntosh put it, “The status quo forced upon families by teacher union bureaucrats and the public school monopoly is indefensible — we will not stop until every parent has the opportunity to provide their children with the quality education they deserve.”
And that’s exactly what this is: a moral battle for the hearts and minds of America’s children. Parents should have the final say — not some far-left superintendent pushing DEI dogma, not a federal agency obsessed with pronouns, and certainly not the radical teachers’ unions that fund Democrat campaigns and then fight like hell to block education reform.
With support from conservative heavyweights and momentum growing in red states across the map, school choice is no longer a fringe issue. It’s the new frontline in the fight for freedom — and the Club for Growth is leading the charge.
