Jersey Jazzman cringed (I imagine) as he watched Donald Trump Jr. spout off about the failures of American public education. Young Trump wants all children to have the same choices that he had. That’s what makes great education, right? Choice.
But Jersey Jazzman (aka teacher and doctoral student Mark Weber) knows that all children will never have the same choices that the son of a billionaire had.
Trump Jr. said:
Growing up, my siblings and I, we were truly fortunate to have choices and options that others don’t have. We want all Americans to have those same opportunities. Our schools used to be an elevator to the middle class. Now, they’re stalled on the ground floor. They’re like Soviet era department stores that are run for the benefit of the clerks and not the customers. For the teachers and the administrators and not the students.
You know why other countries do better on K through 12?* They let parents choose where to send their own children to school. That’s called competition. It’s called the free market. And it’s what the other party fears. They fear it because they’re more concerned about protecting the jobs of tenured teachers than serving the students in desperate need of a good education.
Don Trump Jr. and his brother Eric attended The Hill School in Pottstown, PA, where the tuition for boarding students is $55,600 per year. (Ivanka attended the Choate School, another elite boarding school.) The student-teacher ratio at the Hill School is 7:1. The average class size is 12-14 students. Many of the teachers get free housing on campus. The facilities, the academic curriculum, the extra-curricular activities, and the sports offerings are splendiferous.
Don Trump Jr. is right! All children should “have those same opportunities.”
But that means spending much more money on education, not giving kids a voucher worth $7,000. How about a voucher worth $55,000 so they can go to the Hill School or Choate?
Jersey Jazzman gives almost equal heat to Hillary, not because she sent Chelsea to Sidwell Friends (a choice also made by the Obamas, the Nixons, and Al Gore), but because she has not addressed the need to increase funding for the schools with the greatest needs.
Since George H.W. Bush in 1988, every president has promised to be the “Education President,” but none has been willing to make sure that the nation’s schools have the resources they need for the children they enroll. Instead they prefer to push choice or testing or standards or some other “fix” that fixes nothing.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Word is that Clinton is considering a VP who favors reducing regulation of banks. If this is the case, one ought to wonder just how serious she is about reconsidering her DFER-type attitudes about public education. Recall all the “hopeful” words from Obama, who promptly placed Larry Summers in charge of his economic team ten minutes after becoming President. (Who also wanted Summers as Fed Chief.) Obama’s choice so early on was a harbinger of what was to come, so we ought to take Hillary seriously when she considers “bad guys” for high level positions in her administration. N O T A
G O O D S I G N.
Fool me once shame on you (Obama); fool me twice, shame on me (Clinton). Let’s not let Trump turn us all squishy on Hillary.
If Hillary selects Valsick or Kaine, instead of Perez, she signals that she wants Republican votes/donors (however they label themselves) and, she dismisses the Democratic base.
I’m not squishy on Hillary. Bernie lost. If I vote for Jill Stein or a democratic socialist it’s an automatic vote for the far worse choice, TRUMP/PENCE.
Wrong! So wrong in so many ways.
Lambast Trump’s Hypocrisy and lies on education. Then reframe the education debate: http://www.arthurcamins.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/How-to-reframe-the-education-reform-debate-The-Washington-Post.pdf
I read your article, and I find it ironic that empathy needs to be taught in a nation that purports to have so many good Christians. ” Am I my brother’s keeper?” is right from ‘The Bible.’
As far as hands on science education in this country, teaching science has taken a back seat to reading and math. With the emphasis on punitive testing, our testing focus has narrowed our curriculum to the detriment of all other subjects. We need to stop the testing madness, and let teachers teach. We would get a lot more value from improving our instruction including purchasing hands-on science materials than investing in parallel splinter schools that drain the budgets of public schools. We don’t need more segregated separate and unequal schools; we need to invest in creative ways to desegregate and improve the common schools we already have.
I can’t fault any president for sending his/her kid(s) to a private school in light of the security concerns, and just how plain disruptive it would be for the public school students, teachers and staff to have such a celebrity in their midst. All presidents’ kids deserve to have as private an upbringing as possible, and that is a lot more likely in a secluded setting where many of the other students are also offspring of famous parents.
Now faulting an otherwise mostly exemplary president for his absolutely awful educational policies, THAT I can do. Looking at you, Obama, hope I don’t have to look at you, HRC!
Amy Carter attended the Washington, DC schools for the four years President Carter was in office. She is the only child of a president to have done so that I can recall.
I estimate there’s a 10% chance that Donald Trump, Jr. is not a serial killer. And incredibly, I find him less annoying than the other son who spoke last night.
And he’s coming to a mayoral race near you soon!
In the big picture, I put my money on the youngest son, who it is prophesied will consolidate control over the family fortune, rise through politics, and ultimately establish the counterfeit kingdom of Satan when he achieves what his father could not, the Presidency. Only Trump himself can stop him.
FLERP, sounds like a Greek drama.
I was just going for the plot of the Omen.
FLERP,
I thought you were suggesting Oedipus.
Reportedly, one of Trump’s sons relishes big game hunting- sad for vulnerable lions, like Cecil, and sad for vulnerable people, like Joe six-pack and Joe, the plumber…..
I don’t think compassion is in the curriculum at the Hill School
What pride is there in holding up a dead animal, who was forced into a higher weight class, with so little to defend himself?
Chris Christie, he who never passes up an opportunity to bash, smear, swift boat, demonize and demean public schools, their teachers and especially their unions, sent his son to The Delbarton School. From Delbarton’s web site: Tuition for the 2016-17 academic year is $36,900.00 for all grades. Tuition is comprehensive, covering items such as daily hot lunch, and most activity fees. The large expenses not included in tuition are those associated with transportation (approximately $1,300-$3,000 per year if you opt for an available bus), books (approximately $600-$800 per year), and voluntary giving to school initiatives.
As noted, the tuition is not the total cost; other expenses including, giving, fund raising, donations, etc., push the total closer to $40k. Christie is for vouchers, will the state or school district give a $36,900 voucher to go to Delbarton?
For far too long, the choice has been to fund the endless wars or the public schools, and it is obvious which choice won. The United States has spend more than $35 – $40 trillion on its defense/military spending since the end of World War II.
The global defense spending chart for just 2015 reveals what’s more important to the leaders of the U.S.
http://www.globalfirepower.com/defense-spending-budget.asp
Ivanka Trump… the kind of educational environment [obviously most current in its specifics] that her rheephorm-minded father ensured for her…
From the Choate Rosemary Hall website, “CHOATE BY THE NUMBERS”:
Student/Faculty ratio: 1 to 6.
Average class size: 12.
1:1 iPad program for students and faculty.
Term study abroad programs in 5 countries: Jordan, France, China, Spain & Rome [I didn’t know Rome was a country].
Seven languages offered: Arabic, Chinese, French, Latin, Spanish, Greek, and Italian.
Over 80 interscholastic and intramural teams competing in well-appointed facilities, including an eight-lane swimming pool, a hockey rink, 13 athletic fields, an all-weather track and 22 tennis courts.
[Brackets mine]
Link: http://www.choate.edu/page.cfm?p=516
On another page on the same website:
Boarding school, total tuition and fees: $55,780.
Day school, total tuition and fees: $43,130.
If rheephormsters can take students from the 13th to the 90th percentiles, get 100% graduation rates, and make a 2% increase in graduation rates turn into a 12% one—
Then surely they can make $7,000 for OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN do the work of $55,000 for THEIR OWN CHILDREN.
Do not cast aspersions on these hard data points, O ye of little faith!
😎