Alan Singer writes here of Trump’s proposal to let federal funds follow students to the school (or the computer) of their choice, which would put a knife into public education, which has been a central institution in American democracy.
He writes:
Donald Trump has never had much use for public schools, or for that matter, his own children when they were younger. As a boy The Donald attended the private (and expensive) Kew-Forest School in Queens, New York. Because of “behavior problems” there, he completed secondary school at the New York Military Academy, a private (and expensive) boarding school. Sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. were shipped out to attend and live at the private (and expensive) Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, while daughter Ivanka went to the private (and expensive) Chapin School in New York City and then the Choate Rosemary Hall boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut. At Hill the tuition for 2015-2016 school year was $54,570. Choate is currently a relative bargain at $48,890 a year. Tiffany Trump escaped with her mother, Trump’s middle wife, to Calabasas, California, where she attended the private Viewpoint School. The youngest Trumpster, Barron, age 10, still lives at home and attends the private (and expensive, annual tuition is over $45,000) Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School on the Upper West Side in Manhattan.
All of this makes The Donald as much an expert on public education as he is on the military, foreign policy, or life on the economic margins. But that isn’t stopping Trump from promoting his education plan, one designed to destroy public education in the United States. The basic Trump proposal is to divert $20 billion in federal grants from public school districts to charter, private, parochial, and online schools, effectively bleeding public school systems to death.
Trump calls his school plan choice, as if ordinary Americans will ever be able to choose the kind of schools he chose for his kids. He demands that Americans trust him and boasts they should give him a chance because he will be a great president. The thing is, we already know Trump’s school plan is a recipe for disaster.
He says, “Trust me.” Why should we? Like the students who were defrauded at Trump University? No, thanks!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I don’t see the big deal. Delirious Trumpens is simply being a little more honest about his agenda than most other Destroyers Of Public Education (DOPEs).
Rich people are convinced that everyone hates public schools. I don’t think it’s true but they sure seem to believe it.
It might not be so bad. They would all leave public schools and maybe take ed reformers with them. They can all get busy reforming Choate.
I don’t believe that it is necessarily “rich people” that hate public schools. I know that many “rich people” in districts rural, urban, suburban, upper SES, lower SES and many SES districts who definitely support public education.
The ones that are attempting to privatize education would like everyone else to believe that they are part of the “in crowd”, that everyone who is someone believes in the “crappiness” (originally wrote “carpiness” and that would do) of the “monopoly” of “gubmint skools”. It helps to pull the swindle off if you can get enough dupes to go along. Actually, trying to get others to believe in their schemes is an unfortunate leftover visage from when they were pre-pubescent teens.
Again, deferring to Brother Ambrose:
RICH, adj. Holding in trust and subject to an accounting the property of the indolent, the incompetent, the unthrifty, the envious and the luckless. That is the view that prevails in the underworld, where the Brotherhood of Man finds its most logical development and candid advocacy. To denizens of the midworld the word means good and wise.
Or perhaps the privateers are just:
RHADOMANCER, n. One who uses a divining-rod in prospecting for precious metals in the pocket of a fool.
Well, in times of doubt-election year-looking to Brother Ambrose for guidance is always called for:
POLITICIAN, n. An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of organized society is reared. When he wriggles he mistakes the agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As compared with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being alive.
I love how it’s now obligatory in politics to do a speech attacking public schools.
It’s just ridiculous. All these puffed-up people strutting around criticizing everyone else.
I don’t even want them to come anymore. Stay home, or go visit the private school you attended. Our kids are too busy to listen to your nonsense.
Donald Trump says he doesn’t read anything and he treats people horribly, yet he attended fancy private schools.
Maybe they should take a look at their own schools. Not a lot of “value adding” going on in there for 40k a year if Trump is the result. My 14 year old behaves better and I’m pretty sure reads more.
Well stated. I told my husband, also a Wharton alumnus and nothing like Trump, that Trump is giving Wharton a bad name. This guy sounds like an ignoramus. If he is the “elite,” I’d rather hang out with poor people.
If my sources are correct the spoiled little brat (rat ) started out in public schools. He was ushered away to NY military academy due to his behavioral problems. Of course playing toy soldier was as close as he ever wanted to come to the Vietnam war. Another “jelly bellied armchair patriot”
Donald got four draft deferments during Vietnam because he was in college. He got his fifth deferment because he had a bone spur in his heel. Fortunately the bone spur did not prevent him from playing sports.
http://wonkette.com/593688/war-hero-donald-trump-was-most-terrific-war-hero-in-prep-school
Well, Trump does know destruction.
The greatness of any leader is his/her ability to bring and promote peaceful relations for all of humankind.
The awfulness of any leader is his/her penchant for war and destruction.
Ed reformers in Ohio are all excited today. The state report cards came out!
https://twitter.com/a_churchill22
This is one of the two times a year Columbus turns their attention to the unfashionable public school sector. The other time is in the spring, when kids are taking the tests.
Other than that we don’t see them unless they’re cutting funding or adding unfunded mandates. They don’t even mention the Common Core anymore- it is 100% about test scores. Remember how it was all going to be very nuanced and scientific because kids were “more than a score”. Oh, well. So much for that. They’re stack ranking kids and schools and dressing it up in a lot of touchy feely nonsense. The least they could do is tell these children the truth- they will be measured on a 1 to 4 scale.
Donald Trump and the Democrats would make a great team to destroy public education. So would their parntership with the NGA.
is this the first time anyone in ed reform has admitted they’re paying for two systems with the same results?
“What’s your view of charter schools in D.C.?
KH: What we have in D.C. is two systems that are pretty similar to each other. Both have a handful of schools that are doing tremendously and a few that are struggling mightily—and a bunch of schools in the messy middle.
What’s wrong with having two systems for parents to choose from?
KH: We’re paying twice as much for not very different outcomes. I think that it’s not a good use of resources. We have experienced positive financial revenue in the city for the past 10 years, but if we were like a lot of other places, there’s no way that we would pay as much as we’re paying to support two different systems that are providing the same results.”
No one anticipated that two systems would cost twice as much?
We know how this ends, right? They’ll happily jettison the public system in favor of a wholly privatized system.
Public schools need some kind of plan if Trump wins. I don’t think they’ll survive an all-out assault after 16 years of Bush/Obama.
They’re going to be at a huge disadvantage if DC goes to all vouchers, because they have to take all kids and provide extensive services and private schools don’t. They will not survive another attack out of DC. Public schools will be 100% composed of the kids who need the most services- the most expensive to serve.
This thing is 50 days away. They could get hit as early as next spring.
There is a hungry WILD BEAST, you befriend with it. What do you expect from a hungry WILD BEAST? Will the beast TERRORIZE YOUR WELL-BEING or be submissive to your idiocy?
In the same vein, Donald Trump seriously does business with communist + fascist Russian leader as well as with Muslim hard core countries like Turkey and Saudi Arabia. What do voters expect from these WILD “terrorists” who freely come and go into America to FREELY PURCHASE the most American advanced weapon from Donald Trump’s CORRUPTED Administration???
Please wake up, voters to smell the reality with chaos that is going to happen to our democratic world!
Everything, which smears to Secretary Hillary Clinton’s reputation, is implanted by GOP and the majority Republican House of Congress and Senators.
All business corporate aims at looting Public tax fund, at outsourcing American jobs, and at corrupting American well established Democracy (= destroying Union Force, bullying work force with minimum wage “below basic living cost” plus without benefit and pension for retirement).
If all intelligent lawyers, writers, journalist, educators, and patriotic business people SUCCUMB to corrupted Republican Party, then their children and grandchildren WILL greatly SUFFER under dictatorial leadership.
Shall we learn from the past: greediness and power struggles War(s) in many countries, WWI, WWII, North Korea, China, and Vietnamese War?
Have we ever seen people flee away from all capitalist countries, like America, Canada and Germany? Back2basic
There is more than one corrupted “Party”
So, what’s Hillary’s plan to bolster public schools? I have yet to see a statement from her saying that our public school system (after WWII) is the best in the world, and it needs to be restored. It’s time for politicians to get out of the way and let educational and psychological research lead the way.
Hillary is in the same bag of the same people as Donald. They want money (social power, in our society). Those who have less power than themselves are of no interest to them other than as tools in their hands that might enable them to get even more power.
The Clinton campaign criticized Trump’s plan to abandon federal funding of public schools. It specifically condemned vouchers. It didn’t mention charters.
I am in a quandary here. On one hand I do believe Donald Trump would be great for the US in the sense that we really need to get away from “politicians” and their constant bull shit – and – Hillary is the biggest bull crapper of them all….however, I do work in public education and it certainly appears that Trump is prepared to break up the US dept of Education and send the money to the states with a tag that says give it to charters and privates….so with that said, I probably will have to vote for Hillary Clinton simply because she some what supports public education. On the other hand, fake ass Obama also said he was going to support public education but then he went ahead and hired his basketball buddy from war zone Chicago to head up the US dept of Education and have an agenda to harass public school educators and their unions. So, where do we go from here?? DIane Ravitch is sold on HIllary and I guess we as public educators really have no choice here but to vote for Clinton. My question is yes public education will probably be saved with HIllary but the country will see a huge down swing in the sense that we will continue to flood the US with immigrants from all over the world including more illegals coming to the US and under cutting our salaries as these immigrants work for marbles people. The country will continue to operate on a corrupt basis with the rest of the world targeting our weaknesses here and making lives for true Americans a living hell having to deal with all the crap that is being pushed here by third world environments due to ISIS sweeping zones of people out of their territories. So, its either Hillary or Trump and maybe Trump could be a champion of NYC public schools and our unions as Trump is a New Yorker and works with many unions in his business. Its a tough call.
Trump is utterly corrupt. But that’s just my opinion. But have you read about Trump University, where he scammed ordinary people and widows out of their savings? Did you read about his casinos, where he paid the contractors pennies on the dollar? Have you read that he bills the Republican Party $140,000 to use his Palm Beach club for one night? Have you read that he hasn’t given any money to his foundation since 2008, but uses other people’s money to make gifts and take credit? He is untrustworthy.
To Trump and the UFT:
I do not know whether you know the expression:
“A child, who is as young as 3, can show his/her wisdom in kindness and honesty WHEREAS an old person, who is as old as 70, can show his/her ignorance from being deplorable and fraudulence.”
I am shocking to read your naive expression. If you are an educator, then you must upgrade and self-cultivate your logical mind and soul in order to first help you before you can help students and your family members, regarding “a tough call” in your opinion. Back2basic