Donald Trump Promises $20 Billion School Offensive Choice
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump promised a bold federal push on education Thursday, saying if he is elected president he will spend $20 billion to expand school choice around the country, and calling for an end to tenure at the K-12 level.
Trump used a visit to a charter school in Cleveland, Ohio, as an opportunity to offer more details on his education plan. A core part of that plan is to re-allocate $20 billion in federal funds as a block grant to the states for the sake of promoting school choice.
Other than this general mission, the grant would give states substantial leeway to use the money however they wish. Trump said the money would have to benefit individual low-income students (rather than schools), and that the grants would favor states that have enacted strong school choice laws.
“There’s no failed policy more in need of urgent change than our government-run education monopoly,” Trump told the crowd in Cleveland. ”
In a statement issued alongside his speech, Trump’s campaign said his presidency would make it a national priority to provide a choice of schools to every low-income child in the country.
“The parents will be so happy,” Trump said. “They’ll walk their children to schools they want to be at.”
Trump’s education plan also calls for replacing the “failed tenure system” of K-12 schools with a system of merit pay for all teachers.
Trump’s speech was one of the few times the candidate has focused on K-12 education since clinching the Republican nomination last May, but it meshed well with his recent efforts to reach out to non-white voters. Polls have shown black and Hispanic voters consider education a major issue and are typically in favor of
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/09/08/donald-trump-promises-20-billion-school-choice-offensive/#ixzz4JlkI0K8o
