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[Perfect Blue]

Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos’s proposed budget for the US Department of Education is a boon for privatization and a disaster for public schools and low-income college students. They want to cut federal spending on education by 13.6 percent. Some programs would be eliminated completely; others would face deep reductions. They want to cut $10.6 billion from existing programs and divert $1.4 billion to charter schools and to vouchers for private and religious schools. This budget reflects Trump and DeVos’s deep hostility to public education and their desire to shrink the Department of Education, with the ultimate goal of getting rid of it entirely.

The proposed budget would shrink the assistance programs that now enable 12 million students to attend college: funding for college work-study programs would be cut in half, thus “saving” $490 million. It would eliminate a student loan forgiveness program, enacted in 2007, that encourages college graduates to enter careers in public service—such as social work, teaching, or working as doctors in rural areas—by relieving them of their college debt at the end of ten years of such employment. Some 550,000 young people have joined this program in the past decade; the first wave are due to have their debts forgiven in 2017, but it is not clear if the administration will follow through on the promise to cancel their debt.

The administration wants to end many programs that are aimed at the poorest students and disadvantaged minorities in particular, while canceling vital enhancements to public school education like arts and foreign-language funding. These include supplementary educational services for Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian students ($66 million); arts education ($27 million); American history and civics academies ($1.8 million); full-service community schools that provide comprehensive academic, social, and health services to students and their families ($10 million); library-based literacy programs ($27 million); “impact aid” to districts that lose revenue because of federal facilities like military bases ($66 million); international education and foreign language studies ($73 million); the Javits program for gifted and talented students ($12 million); preschool development grants to help states build or expand high-quality preschool services ($250 million); Special Olympics programs for students with disabilities ($10 million); and Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants, funds used to train teachers and to reduce class sizes ($2.345 billion). In addition, the Trump-DeVos budget would eliminate funding for a potpourri of programs including mental health services, anti-bullying initiatives, and Advanced Placement courses ($400 million). This is only a sample of the broad sweep of programs that would be eliminated, not just reduced. Some of the programs, like the Special Olympics for handicapped students, are small grants but they have both real and symbolic importance. The cuts to funds for reducing class sizes will have an immediate negative effect.

It is all worth reading; full article here: http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/06/05/trump-devos-demolition-of-american-education/

 

[T.v]

I don't think I will ever understand the people who think this is good.

 

[WolfeTone]

As if US education wasn't already fucked to begin with.

This is like detonating the remaining rubble after the system has been knocked over with a wrecking ball.

DeVos is the perfect villain to finally put the nail in the coffin.

 

[Perfect Blue]

I don't think I will ever understand the people who think this is good.

I understand how these profiteers in power want it since it'll load up their pockets, but yeah, I do not understand how the average Joe Voter could support these kinds of policies. I work in education (albeit not in the US) and it's very sad knowing what's happening there at the moment.

 

[Skellig Gra]

If this goes through I'm moving my son to Ireland. I'm not letting these idiots ruin his future.

 

[+Aliken+]

I don't think I will ever understand the people who think this is good.

It's "good" because it creates uneducated people who vote parties like the GOP and Tories.

 

[Goofalo]

Well, you see, Betsy's brother is good at killing people and built a business/legacy on that.

So, she needs to step up her game and she focuses on killing people's hopes and dreams, and throws in a dash of the pyramid scheme she learned from her husband's family.

 

[AstroNut325]

I don't think I will ever understand the people who think this is good.

They voted for Trump and the Republicans in Congress. Says a lot about the constituents.

Remember, it's only the conservatives that attempt to undermine education by promoting revisionist history, and anti-science based curriculum.

 

[SlickShoesRUCrazy]

sharpenguillotines.jpeg....

 

[kirblar]

I don't think I will ever understand the people who think this is good.

Those who send their kids to private school because they don't want their kids going to school with those people.

 

[entremet]

The author of this article knows her stuff. Diane Ravitch. Look her up. She also has a great education policy blog. One of my heroes.

 

[WolfeTone]

I don't think I will ever understand the people who think this is good.

Some people feel like they shouldn't have to pay for other people's kids to attend school. Some people feel like teachers are overpaid and have easy jobs that anyone could do.

People don't realize the huge social benefits that come from a public education system. Reduced crime rates, social cohesion, higher tax revenue from graduates, improved labour force outcomes, more job creation.

These people would rather spend more money locking away 'criminals' in prison for petty offences than spend less money educating these individuals to get better jobs where they could have happier lives and pay tax themselves.

 

[Zaru]

People don't realize the huge social benefits that come from a public education system. Reduced crime rates, social cohesion, higher tax revenue from graduates, improved labour force outcomes, more job creation.

These same people will also call themselves patriotic, because apparently you can love your country while actively destroying it.

 

[Velocity:Design:Comfort]

Remember, while this is all happening, these very same people are giving themselves tax cuts of literally 100s of billions over the next ten years.

 

[Pizza]

As if US education wasn't already fucked to begin with.

This is like detonating the remaining rubble after the system has been knocked over with a wrecking ball.

DeVos is the perfect villain to finally put the nail in the coffin.

For real. Getting well-qualified teachers to low income areas is hard enough. Those areas don't have enough to pay a decent salary so they're stuck with begging recent grads to commit to a few years working there with student loan forgiveness. By the time those teachers sort of know what they're doing they're peacing out and a new wave of inexperienced staff is moving in

These schools are also the hardest BECAUSE of the extreme situations a lot of kids have there. So it's this cycle of undertrained teachers fumbling with kids' education and DeVos is just working to exponentially increase that problem, and others.

 

[Alcotholic]

Uhhh... fuck children, poor people, and our future leaders?

 

[Shoeless]

If this keeps up, in a few generations the USA is going to have a classic feudal system with an small, educated nobility, and masses of uneducated serfs. At that point, a revolution against the government is a foregone conclusion.

 

[Mufc1427]

If this pass then I'm really fuck.

Fuck this administration

 

[killer rin]

I don't think I will ever understand the people who think this is good.

Oh, thats easy. You just have to follow the train of thought.

Liberals == Bad
Liberals == Support Education
Therefore Education == Bad.

Or if you go deeper...
Education == Critical Thinking, Science
Critical Thinking+Science == Bad for Religion, Questioning Beliefs
Questioning Beliefs == Becoming Liberal
Education == Propaganda to create more Liberals
Therefore Education == Bad.

 

[PlayALLtheGames]

I do not understand how the average Joe Voter could support these kinds of policies.

Average Joe voter is an idiot and typically has no clue what is actually changed/cut. To them it's just getting rid of "wasteful" programs so it seems like a great idea.

 

[Not]

We're going to be killing each other for food scraps over a pile of rubble before he can get re-elected, huh

 

[smokeandmirrors]

Honestly we should just ban all private and charter schools

 

[T.v]

Some people feel like they shouldn't have to pay for other people's kids to attend school. Some people feel like teachers are overpaid and have easy jobs that anyone could do.

People don't realize the huge social benefits that come from a public education system. Reduced crime rates, social cohesion, higher tax revenue from graduates, improved labour force outcomes, more job creation.

These people would rather spend more money locking away 'criminals' in prison for petty offences than spend less money educating these individuals to get better jobs where they could have happier lives and pay tax themselves.

I guess it comes down to me not being American. Here in the Netherlands public education is the norm, and has been for a very long time. And as far as I know we don't have any politicians actively fighting against it. Just seems so foreign.

 

[KevinRo]

Honestly we should just ban all private and charter schools

Could you explain why you believe that?

 

[ReAxion]

Children are customers of the schools. That's all they think. The end.

 

[IamDodongo]

Average Joe voter is an idiot and typically has no clue what is actually changed/cut. To them it's just getting rid of "wasteful" programs so it seems like a great idea.

Bingo

 

[kirblar]

If you're not familiar with the history of private schools in the south after integration, you should really familiarize yourself with it.

There's more detailed articles on this subject- I have one offhand about Hillary Clinton's work investigating them in the '70s., but there are definitely better ones out there more specific to them: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/28/...rcover-to-examine-race-in-education.html?_r=1

 

[Velocity:Design:Comfort]

Could you explain why you believe that?

Not that poster, but they end up being/causing essentially neosegregation.

 

[smokeandmirrors]

Could you explain why you believe that?

We should be funding education for all and private and charter schools are either religious in nature or are used as a way to funnel money outside of communities and as a form segregation.

Education is a right and we should be educating everyone equally and not segregate who gets a "good education" based on racial or socioeconomic lines ( of which they are almost the same)

Not that poster, but they end up being/causing essentially neosegregation.

Precisely.

 

[BriGuy]

If this keeps up, in a few generations the USA is going to have a classic feudal system with an small, educated nobility, and masses of uneducated serfs. At that point, a revolution against the government is a foregone conclusion.

At that point, all hope is lost because the means of monitoring, manipulating and controlling such a population will be absolute.

 

[Lord Frieza]

At that point, all hope is lost because the means of monitoring, manipulating and controlling such a population will be absolute.

The means to do that is never truly absolute, and it never will be entirely at least not with increasing effort to do so. If there was, no empire would ever fall, and all empires fall eventually

 

[Velocity:Design:Comfort]

We should be funding education for all and private and charter schools are either religious in nature or are used as a way to funnel money outside of communities and as a form segregation.

Education is a right and we should be educating everyone equally and not segregate who gets a "good education" based on racial or socioeconomic lines ( of which they are almost the same)



Precisely.

To add to this, though, the current way it is done (based on location tax) has a lot of its own problems that also cause this. But then people would rather defund government/tax revolt than have any of their money leave their local area. This is true even in multicultural/liberal communities. I definitely don't claim to know the answer but there are a lot of bad aspects to all solutions. But making voucher/private schools is not the answer, I do know that.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Idiots.

 

[smokeandmirrors]

To add to this, though, the current way it is done (based on location tax) has a lot of its own problems that also cause this. But then people would rather defund government/tax revolt than have any of their money leave their local area. This is true even in multicultural/liberal communities. I definitely don't claim to know the answer but there are a lot of bad aspects to all solutions. But making voucher/private schools is not the answer, I do know that.

Oh I absolutely agree. There needs to be fundamental changes to how we fund education that doesn't revolve around the current taxation method and funneling money to charters/vouchers.

 

[MetroidPrimeRib]

I've always thought the GOP education platform was to keep people low informed and stupid and this is actual concrete proof. There's literally no need to conspiracy theorize.

Of all the blatantly suicidal moves from this administration to American hegemony this is probably the most kneecapping one. The government is actually selling the remaining years we have left as top dog for cheap.

Do they want Germany, China and Russia to take over as global market leader ? I don't even doubt it

 

[KevinRo]

We should be funding education for all and private and charter schools are either religious in nature or are used as a way to funnel money outside of communities and as a form segregation.

Education is a right and we should be educating everyone equally and not segregate who gets a "good education" based on racial or socioeconomic lines ( of which they are almost the same)



Precisely.

Explain to me what meant in your second paragraph when you wrote about everyone being 'equally' educated.

 

[smokeandmirrors]

Explain to me what meant in your second paragraph when you wrote about everyone being 'equally' educated.

Talking about the standard of education, curriculum, access to materials, teachers etc. idealistic yes but it's definitely something we should be striving for including compensating teachers to a higher level while also requiring a higher level of teaching standards

 

[WhiteRabbitEXE]

I don't think I will ever understand the people who think this is good.

From the perspective of those in power, control the flow of knowledge, control the voter. For everyone else in favor, it's largely because of successful attempts by the prior group to demonize actual, good education as a way of brain washing and controlling children by the evil left.

Basically, powerful Republicans are doing exactly what they accuse the Left of doing, and the voters fall for it all hook-line-and-sinker.

 

[Perfect Blue]

The author of this article knows her stuff. Diane Ravitch. Look her up. She also has a great education policy blog. One of my heroes.

I've seen her work before in NY Books and she does great stuff. The publication is probably my favourite in terms of politics/current events/art.

 

[hydrophilic attack]

I don't think I will ever understand the people who think this is good.

More uneducated people = more votes for the GOP

 

[Meffer]

Uhhh... fuck children, poor people, and our future leaders?

"Fuck you I have MINE. NOW. ONLY THE NOW FOR ME."

 

[kess]

I don't think I will ever understand the people who think this is good.

There are plenty of people who think funding education is an onerous tax on their existence. They might be child-free, retirees, or just people who rail against "overpaid" teachers.

America needs to stop tying property values to education.

 

[Perfect Blue]

More uneducated people = more votes for the GOP

This is sad but true. The most educated nations on earth are the most progressive with the highest standard of living.

 

[KernelPanic]

They want to push people into homeschooling or Christian charter schools.

 

[Lord Frieza]

I've told two people recently who are freshman in college that were thinking of going to education (one was history I think and the other hadn't decided), and I pretty much told them not to do it. I don't really​ see any point to being a teacher in the America of today. Wages are already too low, and the road to full time and tenure is already narrow. It's only going to get worse because the GOP won't let up.

I think anyone who really wants to teach and has a passion need to double major in a language and look specifically into ESL teaching and moving out of the US. It's not worth it anymore.

 

[Drencrom]

This is just fucked up...

Why would any leader not want their children and future citizens educated?

 

[p_xavier]

I'm happy that I was born 200m from the US (in Canada). As someone who was sick in his childhood and didn't have money for my studies, I probably would be working at Wal Mart instead of being in the top 1%. I'm boycotting the US.