The Trump Sequel and Education
Educators share thoughts
Well. He’s back. Back again.
He won’t go away.
What does a second Trump term mean for public schools, their students, and teachers?
A pair of educators share their thoughts.
Peter Greene references an interview with former Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for some insight:
Anyway, Betsy thinks that the time is ripe for the federal tax credit scholarship program that she couldn't sell last time.
Yes, a federal push for school vouchers - and likely more federal efforts to push states to adopt vouchers.
But of course top of the list is getting rid of the Department of Education. "De-powered" is her term. She uses the talking point that they just want to push the money out to the states to use as they think best. This talking point never includes the part of Project 2025 where Title 1 funds are supposed to be zeroed out entirely.
Zeroing out Title 1 funds would devastate state and local education budgets. “De-powering” the Dept. of Ed would mean weakening its ability to provide key protections, including protecting students with disabilities covered under IDEA.
Of course, states like Tennessee have considered rejecting all federal education money anyway.
Lauren Quinn also has some thoughts on the impact of a Trump second term on public education:
Dismantling of the Department of Education (which would also mean bye-bye to any type of student loan debt relief—but we already knew that was coming)
A greater push towards privatization/school choice (though school vouchers were soundly defeated on the ballot in three states, including red Nebraska and Kentucky)
Using federal funds to incentivize K-12 schools to abolish tenure and adopt merit-based pay (meaning even fewer teachers would want to work in high-poverty schools)
Quinn also worries about a second Trump term exacerbating the teacher shortage crisis/teacher exodus:
These moves would gut public education, imperil our most vulnerable students, and move us closer to a dystopia in which education is little more than childcare and teaching a low-skilled, low-paid job where EdTech bots “teach” and humans merely supervise.
Quinn wonders what will happen at the end of another four years of Trump:
If the teaching profession is gutted, as it likely will be, and if a mass exodus occurs, which is likely may—what will be left of our education system? And what will happen to our young people in it, the most vulnerable of whom will be most deeply impacted?
Teachers are already leaving the profession and there is already a lack of qualified applicants to replace them.
Today, only 16% of teachers said they’d recommend the profession to others, according to the poll.
Teachers are worn out. They are under attack by privatizers. They are, in most cases, not well-compensated. Their schools are under-resourced.
The state (Tennessee) has long faced a looming teacher shortage - a shortage that has now arrived. And teachers in the state make nearly 30% less than similarly educated professionals.
A second Trump term seems likely to make this situation worse and expedite the hollowing-out of schools.
Defenders of public education can take solace, though, in the sound rejection of school vouchers by actual voters in Colorado, Nebraska, and Kentucky.
Greene notes that DeVos did not rule out returning to the Trump Administration. Though she suggests a current privatizing GOP governor may get the job.
It's an incredibly stressful profession to be in right now. We teachers are told daily that we are bad teachers. Kids don't have good test scores, and it's our fault because we teachers aren't "engaging" them. Kids can't read and kids can't write because we are bad teachers. Meanwhile, kids are allowed to have their toys- their cell phones. And No, they aren't using them for educational purposes unless it's to let AI do their written assignments. Cell phones need to be banished from classrooms.
Rich kids will be taught by real, in-person teachers. Everybody else- the poor kids- (because the middle class is disappearing) will be taught by inexperienced teachers following scripted curriculum or just managing kids who are taught by online programs like Edgenuity. I teach in a SOI school (School of Innovation) and the over-sight/pressure is intense.