Public Education in America Under Attack
I may have mentioned that I tutor at the local high school in Santa Barbara County, home of 2GreenEnergy “headquarters,” which gives me ample opportunity to speak with teachers.
Unlike the city of Santa Barbara, our little town (Santa Ynez) is actually very “God and Country,” very “red,” so to speak: lots of guns, flags, and pick-up trucks. I recently asked the teacher of one of the kids I work with, “Given the conservative nature of the locals, I’m curious to know how the faculty here feels about Trump.
This is what he told me: “If you’re really a ‘teacher,’ you really can’t be a Trump supporter at the same time, and it actually has nothing to do with Trump himself; it revolves around his Department of Education, and Betsy DeVos at its helm. She’s doing everything in her power to ensure that our kids find themselves in the worst possible learning environment and come away with a terrible education.”
Wow, that hit me hard, though what the gentleman told me is undeniable, as noted here:
As President Donald Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos has worked to subvert public education. She has promoted the privatization of public schools through vouchers, called for deep cuts to federal funding, rolled back protections for vulnerable children, and shilled for the for-profit college industry that has defrauded countless students.
DeVos supports Trump’s budget proposal to slash funding for the Department of Education by 13.5%. This proposal asks for a collective $9 billion in cuts to education, including after-school programs, career and technical education, and programs to hire and train teachers.
The Trump-DeVos privatization agenda includes a voucher bill that would invest $50 billion in private school vouchers over 10 years. Meanwhile, DeVos backs Trump’s proposal to cut education spending, eliminating more than two dozen programs that help public schools, including teacher development, academic support enrichment, and after-school activities.
I hope readers will check out the meme above, and let me know if you disagree.
Craig,
Correct me if I’m wrong, but you appear to once again be using “education’ as an excuse to rant about the Trump administration ?
Your claims are as erroneous as ever! The US the Federal Government has never contributed more than 8% of the funding for US public schools!
Schools are largely a matter for the States and local authorities.
Even a massive cut in the Federal education budget would only have a minor affect on School budgets. Thus a 13.5% cut in the federal budget (largely administrative) translates to less than 1% of a school’s finances!
Do you really think a less than 1% reduction in funding will “ensure that our kids find themselves in the worst possible learning environment and come away with a terrible education.”?
Could it be, you are either making a ‘mountain out of a very small mole hill’, or once again just being deliberately disingenuous?
How terrible it must be for you to witness those taxpaying parents whole elect to make the sacrifice of sending their children to the school of their choice, receive federal funding like other taxpayers!
Those “Trump loving swine”, they should send their children to public schools, or be pilloried by those who live in excellent school districts.