by Susan Van Gelder

TRUMP’S CHILD-DAMAGING CUTS AND CHANGES TO EDUCATION

To drive home the sinister meaning of Trump’s military birthday parade, on July 1 the Department of Education abruptly withdrew $7 billion in promised funding from the entire country. In Michigan, $160 million was cut. State Superintendent of public instruction Michael F. Rice stated: “The money funds programs that support migrant education ($5.4 million), services for English learners ($12.8 million), staff professional development ($63.7 million), before- and after-school programs ($36.7 million), and academic enrichment ($38.3 million).” In districts unable to cover the shortfall, working parents have been left in the lurch for childcare.

On July 3 the Administration reinforced its anti-immigrant agenda by barring children of undocumented parents from Head Start, the national pre-K school and social readiness program celebrating its 60th year. Trump now classifies Head Start as “welfare” and cites its “radical left-wing agenda.” This ruling would cut off yet one more support for a pathway to prepare immigrant families to become legal citizens. “This decision undermines the fundamental commitment that the country has made to children,” Yasmina Vinci, the executive director of the National Head Start Association, said in a written statement: “Head Start programs strive to make every child feel welcome, safe, and supported, and reject the characterization of any child as ‘illegal.’” Twenty states are suing the government over banning children of undocumented parents from the Head Start program.

Other cuts also impair the growth and health of all children. Eliminating the Department of Agriculture program for small local farmers and food businesses to sell to schools halts the important nutritional upgrading of school lunches. K-8 children are now served raw fresh vegetables like snow peas, broccoli and carrots; fruits like strawberries and dried cherries—which they actually enjoy eating!

Not all the damage comes from government funding cuts. In just one of many such battles all over the country, despite overwhelming favor for “The Colorado Story,” written by historians and used statewide, conservative School Board members in Mesa County, Colo., rejected the new fourth grade history textbook. One board member objected to the words by a picture of Columbus: “When the Spanish arrived in the New World…. They did not want to be friends with the Native people. Instead, the Spanish attacked their villages, taking whatever they wanted. Indigenous people fought back, but the Spanish had more powerful weapons.” Board President Andrea Haitz said that she felt the discussion of Black Lives Matter, covered on two of the textbook’s 290-page third edition, would be too heavy for her soon-to-be fourth grade son.

“I don’t know that this activism stuff is really appropriate for him at fourth grade,” she said. “As a parent, I’m not ready to have that conversation with him.” But board member Jośe Luis Chávez said it’s a fact of life in some communities. “The activism stuff, my daughter knew that probably in first grade,” he said.

‘INVEST IN OUR CHILDREN’: FIGHT THE NATIONAL SCHOOL VOUCHER PROGRAM!

Too often the persistent systematic attacks on public education are overlooked because people believe that only parents and school-age children are affected. But if we are to rebuild a humane world, we cannot allow destroying the professional expertise or for schools and libraries to cave to ignorant strident voices, or the racist classist erasing of subject matter. Right now, the wider economic and social ramifications of reactionary educational chaos are just beginning, as they did in Germany. Then, in the 1930s, Jewish children were barred from schools, Jewish professors from their university posts, and all things scientific were mocked as “Jewish knowledge.” Today “woke knowledge” has replaced “Jewish”—at least for now.

The BBB Act establishes a national school voucher program. Details are sketchy but already indicate that this will be a major part of the plan to destroy U.S. public K-12 education.

• The New York Times writes: “The model depends on ‘eligible’ American taxpayers donating to designated nonprofits [SGO’s (Scholarship Granting Organizations)] to receive….a dollar-for-dollar federal tax credit up to $1,700 per individual.” “These nonprofits would then dole out scholarships to families to pay for private school tuition, books and other education expenses….The amount that each child could receive in a scholarship could vary, and would depend, in part, on how much money the nonprofits raised.”
  
• K12Dive.com adds: “The scholarship-granting organizations…must be independent entities and cannot be affiliated with a school, according to ACE Scholarships. Moreover, parents cannot direct their tax credit to their child’s education expenses. Rather, the scholarship-granting organizations will be charged with independently determining students’ eligibility.”
  
• Organizations like First Focus point out that “the legislation offers no protections for students. Notably, the only mention of non-discrimination in the bill language is about ensuring religious private schools are eligible for the same benefits as secular private schools.” They argue for “equitable full funding of public schools, providing higher teacher pay, and guaranteeing free breakfast and lunch for all students. Instead of giving tax breaks to the rich, let’s invest in our children and improve our public schools.”

“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” A school voucher pulls funding from public schools to funnel to private and religious schools. In the name of “School Choice,” this voucher program removes parents—via layers of bureaucracy—from actually choosing the best schools for their children. SGO’s, likely with unknown oversight and no educational expertise, have the ultimate power to decide which students receive scholarships, and which schools will enroll them. Nothing in the program prohibits discrimination against children of color, LGBTQ+ families, or special needs children.

Some unknowns:

• Do the math? Per-pupil funding ranges from $7,000 – $11,000 per year in public schools. Each voucher removes those allotments from state school funding. Private school tuition averages $13,000 per year. Who pays the difference?
  
• Will uneven school transportation limit choice, as it does now?
  
• Private school teachers may be untrained, uncertified, and can be fired at will without union protections. What are the teachers’ unions doing?
  
• Will curriculum standards exist? What will a diploma mean?

Ironically, the “complete unknowns” of the national school voucher program can work in favor of its opponents. Although far too many states already have state voucher programs, the Education Law Center has a plentiful array of data reports, podcasts and webinars from the battles of the past decade that can be shared with defenders of public education.

Visit the PFPS Research page for an extensive catalogue of research about the negative effects of vouchers on academic outcomes, civil rights, school integration, public school funding, and more. Access webinars, fact sheets, and other resources on the PFPS Advocacy page and Interactive Tools page. PFPS is a national campaign directed by the Education Law Center.

For more information and to take action against the proposed federal voucher scheme, visit this National Coalition for Public Education website.