Trump Moves To Destroy Public Education
In the last two weeks Donald Trump has backtracked, charmed, fudged, modified, and hedged on positions he took during his campaign for president. Some critics, like the New York Times, even start to hope a Trump presidency might not be as bad as they initially feared. Trump will probably never “build the wall” and Hillary seems to be safe from criminal prosecution. But for children and schools in the United States the situation looks worse than expected as Trump quickly moved with plans to tear apart public education in this country. It is going to be a long and difficult fight to try to stop him.
During the campaign, Candidate Trump endorsed a vastly expanded “charter school” system and pledged to divert $20 billion in federal funds away from public schools. It would end up financing Southern segregation academies, religious schools, and private and for-profit ventures. To do this Trump was going to tie federal dollars to individual children, so wherever they went, the dollars would follow.
Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education could hardly be worse. Right-wing billionaire Elizabeth “Betsy” DeVos has spent decades and millions of dollars in campaigns to privatize, defund, and destroy public education in her home state of Michigan and in the United States. Lily Eskelsen García, President of the National Education Association declared “By nominating Betsy DeVos, the Trump administration has demonstrated just how out of touch it is with what works best for students, parents, educators, and communities.”
DeVos is a product of Christian education and she and her family members are involved across-the-board in right-wing activities including anti-gay marriage efforts and covert for-profit military operations. DeVos never worked in public education in any capacity and her children all attended Christian academies.
Much of DeVos’ money comes via her husband who inherited the Amway health and beauty products company. DeVos personally was chairwoman of the board of Alliance for School Choice and is head of the the All Children Matter political action Trump Moves To Destroy Public Education | The Huffington Post: