@coldjoint,
coldjoint wrote:Trump's grandchildren speak and read Mandarin. Of course you knew that.
Gee, I wonder why...
An Attack on America's Schools
Trump's budget lays bare his administration's total disregard for public education.
By Scott Sargrad Opinion ContributorMay 23, 2017, at 5:00 p.m.
U.S. News & World Report
An Attack on America's Schools
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP released his administration's first full budget Tuesday, and the reactions from Capitol Hill make it look like it's dead on arrival. That might be true, but it shouldn't make those of us who work to improve outcomes for students any less concerned. As former Education Secretary Arne Duncan said whenever he talked about President Barack Obama's budget proposals, budgets reflect our values. And when it comes to education, the values of Trump and his education secretary Betsy DeVos couldn't be clearer –
private schools deserve money, and public schools and vulnerable students don't.
At a high level, the outlines of Trump and DeVos' education priorities became clear in March with the release of the administration's so-called "skinny budget." As a result, much of what is in today's full budget isn't surprising. The proposal would cut the Education Department's funding by more than 13 percent and slash overall funding by almost $11 billion, including eliminating $2.1 billion in funding for teacher professional development and support, which could pay the salaries of more than 35,000 teachers, and $1.2 billion for after-school programs, which support working families and serve 1.6 million students.
At the same time, Trump and DeVos would push over $1 billion of new money for private school voucher schemes and other school choice programs. In essence, states and districts will have to enact DeVos' preferred school choice policies in order to recover some of the cuts to longstanding programs.
But the details released in the Trump administration's official budget paint an even starker picture. In addition to eliminating funding for teachers and after-school programs, the budget proposes dismantling 20 other critical programs –
zeroing out funding for arts; foreign language; science, technology, engineering and math (STEM); literacy; history and civics; gifted programs; mental health; bullying prevention; and enrichment programs. In a cruel twist, Trump would cut $12 million in funding for the Special Olympics – after he openly mocked a reporter with a disability on the campaign trail last year.
Budgets are always an exercise in trade-offs and priorities and, if nothing else, Trump and DeVos should get credit for being crystal clear about their priorities. In addition to prioritizing private schools over public schools, the budget prioritizes ideology over evidence and choice over all else.
In order to fund her private school voucher scheme, DeVos has proposed distorting the bipartisan Education Innovation and Research Program – the successor to the Investing in Innovation program –
to create her own slush fund for private schools. The Education Innovation and Research Program was intended to provide more resources to ideas with a proven evidence base to build on existing research and create more evidence of effective programs. Instead of supporting the best ideas from states and districts to improve schools, DeVos would specifically funnel that money to private schools, including private religious schools. DeVos may claim she wants to build evidence, but when asked about recent studies showing that the Washington, D.C. voucher program actually had negative impacts on student achievement, she simply said, "We're not taking questions."
Even when it comes to staffing the Department of Education, DeVos' priorities are stark. The budget requests millions more dollars for "additional security costs for the secretary" stemming from DeVos's unprecedented decision to have federal marshals guard her 24 hours a day, rather than simply trusting the department's own security staff. At the same time, DeVos would cut staff at the Office for Civil Rights by almost 10 percent despite a nearly threefold increase in complaints over the past decade, gutting the department's ability to protect students across the country.
While it's tempting to think that the Trump-DeVos budget is so extreme that it has no chance of being enacted into law, that would be a mistake. This budget is simply a more draconian version of House Speaker Paul Ryan's conservative vision to dismantle the safety net. The values and priorities that it represents are deeply damaging to the country, and particularly to vulnerable students.
The alternative vision is simple. Invest in education, don't dismantle it – and ensure that public money goes to public schools. Parents, teachers and advocates can't let Trump and DeVos off the hook for this attack on America's schools.
