2016 Medley #27: A Preview of Education in the Trump Administration, Part 1

The Education Plan,
Helping our Students Understand,
The U.S. Education Department

THE EDUCATION PLAN

Donald Trump Releases Education Proposal, Promoting School Choice

President-elect Trump has a school choice plan...to send $20 billion, the source for which is still unknown, to the states as block grants to encourage school choice.

Continuing his efforts to attract minority voters, Donald J. Trump visited an inner-city charter school on Thursday, where he promised to direct $20 billion in federal grants for poor children to attend a school of their family’s choice.

Mr. Trump offered his most detailed education proposal to date, embracing principles that appeal to school reformers on the right as well as to many poor African-American and Hispanic parents, who have helped drive the charter school movement.

“As president, I will establish the national goal of providing school choice to every American child living in poverty,” Mr. Trump said. “If we can put a man on the moon, dig out the Panama Canal and win two world wars, then I have no doubt that we as a nation can provide school choice to every disadvantaged child in America.”

"Choice" means private schools.

Over the last few years, child poverty in the US has decreased. It is, however, still shamefully high. More than 50% of American public school children live in poverty. There are about 50.4 million K-12 public school students in the U.S which means that there are about 25.7 million public school student who live in poverty.

The average cost of a private school in the U.S. is $7,770 per school year for elementary schools, and $13,030 for high schools. Block grants to states don't divide up evenly among children, but just for fun, let's see how much $20 billion will buy. If we divide $20 billion by the number of students living in poverty in the U.S. we find that each student would get about $778. That means that those families would have to come up with an additional $6,992 for elementary school or an additional $12252 for high school.

President-elect Trump didn't say anything about why someone would want to send their children to a private school, but we can assume that one reason someone would make that "choice" would be because private schools are better. But, are private schools actually better than public schools? When one removes the advantages that private schools have of refusing admission to students who are, in some way, difficult to teach (either through academic disability, English language learners, or some other reason), we find that private schools do no better than public schools.

A second reason would be to provide a religious education for their child. Should we allow people to use public tax funds, meant for public schools, to teach religion? No, and here's why not.

"Choice" means charter schools.

Charter schools won't cost the family because charter schools are privately run schools paid for with public funds. So, perhaps some of that $20 billion would go to encouraging the growth of the charter school sector. Unfortunately, there's no "choice" there since, when one balances the demographics, charter schools don't perform any better than public schools. A recent study (2013) said that charter schools comparisons to public schools had improved since a similar, earlier study (2009), however, the majority of charter schools still performed no better than public schools.

There are other serious problems with charter schools. Some charter schools have learned how to "choose" their own students, restricting their enrollment to students with higher potential, more parental support, or fewer disabilities. Too many charter schools have no public oversight opening the door to frequent financial scandals or schools closing in the middle of the year leaving students without a school to attend (Spoiler Alert: Students abandoned by charter schools return to the public schools). The poster-child for corruption in the charter school movement is Ohio. The president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, Melissa Cropper, comments,

“Unregulated, unaccountable for-profit charter schools — like the one Trump is visiting today — have destabilized our public districts, defrauded taxpayers and left our kids and educators worse off, not better.”

The Trump plan, then, is just to increase the amount of "choice" because "the money should follow the child." This shortchanges the vast majority of students who attend public schools to subsidize a "choice" plan which often mixes church and state, has no public oversight of public funds spent, and doesn't do a better job of educating children.

It would be nice to invest some of that $20 billion, once we find a way to raise it, in the public schools in high poverty urban and rural areas. After all, we are still a nation which spends more money to educate its wealthy children, than its poor children.

• The gap between rich and poor schools grew 44 percent over a decade

• In Public Education, Edge Still Goes to Rich

• As Inequalities Grow, Rich Parents Spend More On Children’s Education

Donald J. Trump’s *Vision* for Education

From Mercedes Schneider.

Indeed, it is clear that Trump has given no thought to any downside to school choice. A good place to start would be in reality, with the NAACP’s October 15, 2016, charter school moratorium resolution, followed by the details of the attempted purchase of charter school expansion that was voted down in Massachusetts on November 08, 2016. Add to that Georgia voters’ nixing the idea of a state-run school district that would have become a open door for public-school-defunding charter school expansion, also on November 08, 2016.

It seems that Trump is also calling for the dissolution of the US Department of Education (USDOE). This is not a new idea, but it is a Republican idea. (The USDOE came into being in October 1979 under Democratic president, Jimmy Carter.) In 1980, Ronald Reagan called for the then-year-old department’s dissolution as part of his presidential campaign platform. In 1995, then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich wanted to abolish it. Others have followed. However, it would take an act of Congress to abolish the USDOE.

In his Contract with the American Voter, Trump vows to end Common Core. Language is already written into ESSA to prevent Common Core as a federal requirement, and Trump cannot halt Common Core on the state level. So, a Trump vow to end Common Core means nothing.

President Donald Trump: What NOW for Public Schools?

For those of you who are saying, "What should we do instead?" check out Nancy Bailey's comprehensive list of things to do which would actually help America's students instead of diverting public funds into private pockets. It's long, but well worth it.  Here's a sample...

President-elect Trump should not decrease support when it comes to civil rights issues in our schools. He should reach out and work to bring people together...

He could surprise us by appointing Diane Ravitch or Stephen Krashen to be Secretary of Education. Both have the experience and the know-how to lead America and our schools in a new—better direction...

President Trump could turn troubling education reform upside down by returning to the old Republican notion that he alluded to in the beginning of his candidacy—local control!...

Public schools should be run by real teachers and principals. They should be connected closely to parents and those from the community...

The USDOE ought to be a clearinghouse for good practices—a beacon of hope for education in the rest of the world...

Isn’t it time America gets behind its schools? Shouldn’t we look to countries that succeed with their students, like Finland, and treat children, all children, with kindness and dignity?

HELPING OUR STUDENTS UNDERSTAND

Peter Greene and Russ Walsh are not optimistic about the condition of the nation under a Trump presidency. How can we keep our students safe? How can we focus on teaching when the hate and bullying engendered by the Trump campaign permeate the world outside? It's bound to creep into the classroom...

Teaching in Trump's America

From Peter Greene

In the meantime, how I do I do my job in this version of America, where might makes right and abuse is a virtue, where folks have really, truly lost sight of what Jesus had to say, who are not even trying to understand then intent of the framers and founders.

In a weird way, I suppose the last fifteen years have been a sort of warmup, a sort of dress rehearsal of that new show, "How To Keep Teaching When A Top-Down Prescriptive Bureaucracy Is Trying To Force You To Commit Malpractice." We're teachers, and many of us already know how to defy authority. Maybe we were getting ready for this.

And of course for some folks, literally nothing has changed at all. There is no new ugliness-- just the same old ugliness without a pretty mask or snappy suit. Just ugly and vicious like always, but now naked of any pretense. We can probably learn some lessons from those folks.

To my Trump-voting friends and associates, I'm not mad-- well, yeah, actually, I am pretty pissed at you right this moment, but it will probably pass. But please-- when it turns out he's lied to you about, well, everything, do not expect me to sympathize. Over the next four years I will have ample opportunity to say I told you so, and it's unlikely that I'll hold my tongue. But at the moment, my anger does not run as deep as my heartbreak (which, as I said, has been grinding away for the last two years) and loss and confusion, because I just don't know what country I live in any more. I don't know what this country stands for. I don't know what we value as a nation or a culture.

I don't know how to teach my students about us. I don't know how to prepare them to go out into this new, uglier America.

The next days are going to be awful, ugly, just plain bad. Keep your heads down, brothers and sisters. Watch out for each other, and cast an eye toward the future. I don't know who we are any more, but we have to be better than this.

The Racist Genie is Out of the Bottle (again)

From Russ Walsh

This morning the New York Times published an editorial asking that the President-elect directly and immediately denounce the hate and let his supporters know that this targeting behavior is not OK. But once you let the hate genie out of the bottle, it is devilishly difficult to put it back in. Racism, xenophobia, and misogyny are never far from the surface in this country and when these baser instincts of humans seem to have the imprimatur of the leader of the country, it may take a lifetime to tame them.

As teachers, we need to be on guard and vigilant. We must re-double our efforts to make sure the classroom, the hallways, the cafeteria, the locker room, the campus are safe for all people, including Trump supporters, who will almost certainly be the targets of backlash as well.

In 1992, Rodney King, the African-American victim of a brutal police beating in Los Angeles asked, “Can we all get along?” Apparently not, Rodney. Not yet, anyway. There is still a lot of work to be done.

EDUCATION SECRETARY

Finally, there's the U.S. Secretary of Education. Whoever President-elect Trump chooses, they will more than likely follow in the footsteps of the Duncan/King Education Department (which followed in the footsteps of the Paige/Spellings Department)...encouraging privatization, favoring charter schools over public, and generally following the "reformist" plan to test and punish public school children in order to prove that public schools are "failing."

One name mentioned is Ben Carson, former candidate for the Republican nomination and someone who, like Trump, has absolutely no experience in public service.

Ben Carson as secretary of education?

Stephen Krashen, who volunteered for the job of Education Secretary, gives his opinion about Carson (which would have worked equally well for nearly all our past Education Secretaries as well)...

Sent to the New York Times
Zapatero a su zapatos

Re: Donald Trump is picking his cabinet: Here's a short list" (Nov. 12).

If Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon,, is qualified to become US Secretary of Education, I am qualified to be appointed surgeon-general.

Stephen Krashen, PhD
Professor Emeritus of Education
University of Southern California

Note: Zapatero a su zapatos = stick to your area of competence.
Hat tip: Viviana Bonafede

I would agree with Krashen. Ben Carson is a science denier and a creationist who thinks that the pyramids were built to store grain. During the campaign he promised to monitor liberal speech on college campuses. How is this man qualified to be the Secretary of Education? At least Arne Duncan watched his mom teach...

Donald Trump Is Picking His Cabinet: Here’s a Short List

Another choice on President-elect Trump's short list for Education Secretary is Hoover Institution Fellow, Williamson M. Evers. The NY Times identifies him as an "Education expert." That means that he has absolutely no education experience at all, although he did, as a member of HOLD (Honest Open Logical Debate) on Math Reform, once ceremoniously flush a math curriculum he didn't like down the toilet.

Education Secretary
Mr. Trump has said he wants to drastically shrink the Education Department and shift responsibilities for curriculum research, development and education aid to state and local governments.

• Dr. Ben Carson Former neurosurgeon and 2016 presidential candidate

• Williamson M. Evers Education expert at the Hoover Institution, a think tank

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No Group is Ever Made Stronger by Division

America's teachers showed up to school on Wednesday morning just like they do every school day. They did their best to help their students make sense of the events of the previous evening.

In many classrooms teachers had to ease the worry of children who feared the backlash against tolerance, acceptance and understanding, and for misogyny, bigotry, and xenophobia. They used the election, as teachers have used elections for decades, as a teaching moment...to explain how our nation's version of democracy works...to focus on the obligations of citizenship...and to highlight the diversity that strengthens, and divides, the nation.

Like many others, history teacher Jim Cullen approached his Wednesday classes thinking about his response.

...necessity requires me to put aside my own unease and confusion as I try to help adolescents process an event that is necessarily unprecedented for them...

My role is to help them feel better as a matter of trying to alleviate despair, anxiety or indignation, but also to feel better in the sense of thinking more clearly, to bring their hearts and their heads into greater alignment...

Bringing hearts and heads into alignment is an often unconscious goal for many teachers. Below is an exchange between a retired teacher friend of mine and a former student (now adult) about the election. In her response, the teacher uses yet another former student's letter about the election. Both students express in their own way, how they have, as they have grown, aligned their hearts and heads. Both students have learned what every teacher hopes to instill in their students: Life is a series of learning experiences.

[Note: I have edited all three letters for brevity and clarity, and to remove identifying information.]

STUDENT ONE

...I have thought a lot about you this election season. Believe it or not, the unit we did on the election between Dukakis and Bush nearly 30 years ago taught me much and I wanted to thank you so very, very much. If not for you, I may have continued basing political views on just abortion. I'll never forget the day that you turned to me and said, "He's not FOR abortion. No one is FOR abortion!" I finally thought to myself, "she's right! Baby murderers wouldn't be wandering around the countryside. What the heck is this really about?" My parents had gone through such a bad spot when my sister had died 2 years before, abortion and euthanasia was all they ever discussed as far as politics during that time in my life. Thanks to you, my eyes were opened. Trade deals, global warming, social security, etc. – I had no idea those things even existed. I have made it my goal in life to learn as much as possible about issues and never accept the easy and emotional answers.

My family eventually healed and after we moved north...I started meeting friends from all over the world and expanding my views...

Today was painful for me, like many Americans. One of my best friends is Syrian and her family is stuck back there. She is terrified that even though she is an ICU doctor at a major university, she is going to be deported. Today I comforted a mother who was terrified that if Obamacare is repealed, her 4-year old son with leukemia will never qualify for insurance again. One of my students asked for permission to leave early so that she could go marry her girlfriend because she is afraid she will lose that right. I'm lucky - I'm an upper, middle class white woman with a doctorate. [The results of this election] will not have much impact to my life. But thanks to the seed that you planted nearly 30 years ago, I can see how devastating this was for others...thanks for teaching me a big part of what has made me who I am!

TEACHER

...Thank you so much for writing.

I tried to keep my own political views to myself when I was teaching, especially the election units. It seemed important to present things and let you students do your own thinking. But it pleases me no end to see that you took what we did and became a person with not just a strong mind but also with a big and good and loving heart.

I am trying not to panic or to prophesy. I have lived through many disappointing elections and this feeling, while deeper this time, is familiar. People talk trash during a campaign and while it sets a tone, their promises aren't easy to keep. I do believe in the power of our Constitution and its checks and balances. I do believe that there are plenty of good people in Congress who will not just sit there and let everything fall apart. He (can't say his name yet) passed the first test with his victory speech. That wasn't at all like the ugly campaign talk. It was rather...Presidential.

My heart goes out to the people you talk about in your last paragraph...the Syrian doctor, parents of sick kids and also kids with disabilities, gay people. I am hoping and praying that these fears stay only that – fears but nothing more.

[Another former student] wrote something yesterday that helped me. Here is what she said...

STUDENT TWO

I have mulled over my thoughts and feelings all day, and while I feel political posts are kind of just white noise at this point, I feel I must say my piece (perhaps if only for a little bit of peace for myself.) No group is ever made stronger by division and there are lessons to be learned in every situation. Yes, I voted for Hillary, this is no big surprise, but I am coming to terms with the Presidential race outcome and starting to open my heart and mind to what can be learned. I think that what we can learn is that we have a long way to go as a country. I think if HRC had won, it would have eased our "liberal minds" to think that change is upon us, but now, the tolerance of intolerance that America feels has light shed fully upon it.

When I think about those who voted for Trump, I have been digging deep to understand how so many people that I know and love, work alongside, and get along with, could look the other way at such a blatant display of negativity towards women, both in action and words, minorities, poor people, the LGBT community, immigrants, and on and on... and it is hard not to take it personally. You have to get to the core of WHY a compassionate, caring person could look the other way and choose someone like Trump as a representative for them, for their country. And the core issue that I have heard time and again is something I can whole-heartedly agree with – change in the political arena...desperate times call for desperate measures. Those that chose to vote for Trump are just so disenchanted with the way politics are run in this country, they were willing to overlook the other issues with him as a candidate.

And I get it, in a big way, I get it...I understand the desire for some change, some big change. And I am going to try to keep an open mind, as HRC and President Obama have encouraged. I am looking for silver linings and I am going to revel in the opportunity to talk about changing what we are tolerant of, to think about what ugliness has surfaced and to have respectful discussions with people about this topic. I am not naive enough to think that there weren't some people who did in fact vote for Trump BECAUSE of his racism and misogyny. And it's time we deal with this elephant in the room, bring it to the surface, because that is the only way we will ever weed it out for good.

...So, while the outcome was not what I wanted, perhaps it was actually what we needed as a country to grow and learn. Don't threaten to move away from the country if the outcome isn't what you wanted...threaten to stay and make a change. For now, I will try to continue to spread love, and compassion, and a thirst to understand my fellow man without judgment. I think we are all a lot closer the middle ground than we think we are and it is time we stop letting the media divide us with fear and finger pointing, and portray all politics as "us vs. them". It is time that we engage in more civil discourse to try to compromise and learn. I love people for their differences as well as their similarities. Life would be boring if we all held the same beliefs, so I want to embrace differences while working towards kindness. Always working towards more kindness...

TEACHER

With former students like you two, didn't I have the best job in the world? You are such a dear. We can do this. Thank you.

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A Dozen Quotes for the Morning After

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Benjamin Franklin

A lady asked Franklin: "Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?". Franklin replied: “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

Thomas Jefferson

...experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large... [emphasis added]

Abraham Lincoln

The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

Arthur O'Shaughnessy

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

J.K. Rowling

“But you know, happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

John Holt

The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do.

Elie Wiesel

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.

Anne Frank

Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.

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Sagan Day, 2016

"Carl Sagan Day is a celebration of the life and teachings of Carl Sagan..."

Sagan Day isn't until Wednesday...but with the current focus on the poison that is American politics, I thought it would be nice to share this early. Here, then, is a little perspective from Carl Sagan.

To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

On Human Humility

The Milky Way galaxy is, in fact, one of billions, perhaps hundreds of billions of galaxies, notable neither in mass, nor in brightness, nor in how its stars are configured and arrayed. Some modern deep-sky photographs show more galaxies beyond the Milky Way, than stars within the Milky Way. Every one of the is an island universe containing perhaps, a hundred billion suns. Such an image is a profound sermon on humility.

The Pale Blue Dot

“Consider again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

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