J.D. Vance hosts a town hall in Harrisburg; claims that today’s quality of education is a “national scandal”

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHP) — Vice presidential candidate and senator J.D. Vance is hosting a town hall meeting at Rock Church in Harrisburg on Saturday evening.

The main topic of the town hall is education, and the Trump campaign says the Trump-Vance administration will “double down” on its commitment to ensuring every child in Pennsylvania has “access to a top-quality education.”

“The majority of American children of any race do not have access to a U.S.-quality education,” Vance said. “It’s a national scandal.”

“Some public schools need to spend more on teachers and students and less on bureaucrats,” Vance said. “I have seen the statistics and if you look at the increase in school funding, very little has gone to students and very little has gone to teachers. Everything went to the administrators.”

“I really think it takes a little bit of teachers, teachers unions and teachers union leadership coming to Jesus, no pun intended, and saying to the American people, ‘Yes, we screwed up.’”

Vance talked about planned changes to the current education system if elected vice president of the United States.

“I believe that one way to solve this problem is to award scholarships, that is, to give vouchers to every single parent, every grandparent who took care of a child, so that they can choose the educational path that makes the most sense for them and their family.”

In a press release, the campaign issued the following statement:

The overwhelming majority of parents in Pennsylvania support school choice, and more than 60,000 scholarships are awarded annually to elementary and middle school students to attend the schools of their choice. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expanded school choice options – parents were given the power to make key educational decisions for their children and were given the opportunity to use money from a 529 savings account to cover the cost of K-12 tuition at the private school of their choice. or religious.

Earlier this month, former President Trump hailed education as the “civil rights issue of our time.”

Vance speaks at a local church after being invited by the pastor, who is now making national headlines.

The Rev. Joshua C. Robertson said in a statement that he does not support Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.

Black communities just don’t need politicians who look like us. We need politicians who support the principles and policies that are important to us. Especially when it comes to the civil rights of our times – freedom of education.

Rev. Robertson also said he has made efforts to invite Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate. It has not been confirmed whether Walz will be in attendance or not. On Friday evening, Walz was campaigning in Scranton.

The CBS 21 crew will travel to the campaign event, which begins at 7:30 p.m.

The visit is a series of campaign events that have taken place over the past few weeks on the Pennsylvania battlefield.

On October 15, Montgomery County’s Moms for America town hall meeting was held.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE |J.D. Vance speaks at a “Moms for America” town hall in Pennsylvania

On the other hand, second gentleman Doug Emhoff is also expected to campaign in Harrisburg for his wife, Kamala Harris.

GALLERY | Doug Emhoff is knocking on doors in Mechanicsburg on behalf of his wife’s campaign

The Harris campaign released a statement regarding Vance’s town hall in Harrisburg stating the following:

While Vice President Harris fights to expand opportunities for the next generation, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance’s Project 2025 would give Trump unchecked power to raise costs for families by nearly $4,000 a year and eliminate the Department of Education, putting thousands of children out of preschool across the commonwealth.

Elon Musk also visited central Pennsylvania on Saturday evening on behalf of the Trump-Vance ticket.