Get ready to pay taxes to fund religious schools! Hurray!

[Aroura]

Ok, I suck at leaving.  I did leave for a couple of days, but where would I even go?  I can barely leave my house.

Anyway, so Trump announced today his pick for Secretary of Education.  Betsy DeVos.

Listen, the first couple of days after the election, I was extremely upset, but then we started hearing that Trumps wouldn't build a wll or make a Muslim registry, and there were a lot of cries of "give him a chance".  So I tried.  Really, I thought, maybe it won't be nearly as bad as I thought.  The violence and anger will die down, and it'll just be politics as usual anyway.

But it isn't.  White nationalists, climate change deniers and religious fanatics abound.  NASA climate studies will be defunded, and hey, maybe that Muslim registry will be a thing after all.

But this was it, this is the straw that broke my back.  This person, who's husband owns Amway, who is wishes to dismantle public schools in favor of vouchers when that has only ever widened the disparity gap, who approves of "Christian Education", who has almost no qualifications except being part of the rich people's suck up to Trump club, is going to be Secretary of Education???

Look, I homeschool because public education is a mess, so I get it.  I feel our public school system needs a major overhaul.  I would back major changes.  First, we need to stop with the anti-intellectualism, and show good teachers respect, and pay them what they are worth. There are so many working models of public education to pick from, but we are going to get under regulated private voucher programs, Christian schools paid for with tax dollars, and who know how many profiteers running off with the money while kids get shitty educations.  The whole country will become one giant Trump University.

Trump Chooses another unqualified, wealthy, suck up

But yes, Hillary would have been "equally bad". 

[Minimalist]

A majority of the population - by last count some 2 million voters - knew that Drumpf was full of shit and voted for Clinton.  Sadly, that is not enough to win elections.

[Cato]

I think this is a bit alarmist. The SCOTUS history on this matter is pretty clear. We're not going from no organized prayer to publicly funded schools, it's just not going to happen. The Jesus freaks will of course continue to try, but are routinely slapped around by the courts. Most violations are addressed simply by threatening a suit.

The Obama administration has done two things to improve education in the last eight years, jack and shit. Instead of allocating resources to revamp our model, we inadvertently narrow curriculum with over emphasized testing which is idiotically used as a single metric of performance to punish 'underperforming' schools. All the while our children go without as we make their future path to success more difficult. It's criminal and Obama has proven no party can claim the high ground here.

Seriously, how difficult would it be to devote the minimal resources to sit down with the Norwegians (or any other of the 20+ nations that outperform us while spending less per child) and honestly admit we have a serious problem and would like some advice.

[Minimalist]

They want to make the court into their own image, though.

You know....



This is what the jesus freaks have in mind.

[Aroura]

I think they may find a way around it, if they use these "vouchers". People can choose to use them at a variety of schools, including private institutions. Some of these private school would, presumably, be Christian.

There might be lawsuits to stop it. I'm not sure, but in any case, this woman's idea of education is failed an d backward and will leave the poorest kids SoL.

[Autumnlicious]

I don't believe they're thinking of the poor when they talk vouchers.

The administrative overhead would be immense for existing institutions.

[Foxaèr]

Good thing I am not working; therefore, no spending taxes on that useless venture.

[GUBU]

I think they may find a way around it, if they use these "vouchers".  People can choose to use them at a variety of schools, including private institutions.  Some of these private school would, presumably, be Christian.

There might be lawsuits to stop it.  I'm not sure, but in any case, this woman's idea of education is failed an d backward and will leave the poorest kids SoL.

The whole purpose of the voucher system is to divert funds for the state schooling system in order to give the wealthy a discount on sending darlin Tarquin to St. Cake's boarding school, and to ensure that poor people don't get the kind of education that'll make them uppity. If you ever look at the way such systems are implemented, the vouchers don't cover the cost of even a basic education, but will knock off a significant slice of the $50k needed for a fee paying education.

[Cecelia]

Vouchers are a big reason why I was against Donald Trump. The man probably only sets foot in a public school every four years (presuming his place of polling hasn't been a church at one time or another... don't get me started on that). They want to gut public schools, and as a public school teacher this really makes me mad. It's why I so hope I can move. I'm sure Canada or the UK would love a highly qualified educator.

It's all a system designed to hurt the poorest kids by taking funding from public schools and making sure that the rich don't have their tax money going to people who will eventually become their doctors, lawyers, CEO's and more. The public school system isn't perfect--but it's not as bad as people make it out to be either. Where we really fail is making sure schools have what they need to help students succeed. There's a lot of good--even great public schools in the country. And most of them have a few things in common: Good teachers and good equipment are among them.

Education, like health care, is something I don't think should be profit based. Because it makes room for the Donald Trump's of the world. Not to mention the Bill Clinton's as well (he was part of a for-profit university himself). Private school choice sounds good on the surface--but private schools are free to decline any students they wish. Public schools are the only schools that are required to take every student, and they rarely can expel students. That's not to say I think they should do away with private schools--but I don't think they should receive any tax payer funds.

People hate paying for public education. "I don't have kids, why should I have to pay for it?" "My kids go to private school, and I'm paying twice on it because of taxes!" Apparently the benefits of public education go over their heads. They go beyond just educating your own children.

The choice for Education Secretary is extremely disappointing (that's an understatment). I know many teachers (some of whom even voted for the baboon in chief) who think that it's a bad choice.

I for one would never teach at a private school. Education was a subject that went mostly untouched at the debates. Vouchers are designed to destroy our education system by opening the way for people like Donald Trump to profit off of students. Just look at our for-profit colleges, and how much money goes to them--and how ineffectual they are to see how bad of an idea this is.