William Mathis describes Trump’s education budget as a demonstration of Doublespeak, meant to mask its indifference to children.
He writes:
“In 1965, the federal government, driven by the obligation to provide equal opportunities to the least fortunate of our citizens, passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It was intended to lift the nation by strengthening our poorest children and schools, improving the quality of teaching, opening the doors of higher education, and providing skills to adults. It embraced the ideal voiced by the late President Kennedy that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” And the emphasis was on building the common good. By widely investing in our citizens, we invest in the health of our society and economy.
“Those principles have found no refuge in the work of President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos; all that remains of these great purposes are a confusion of empty words made to appear as if the worst were the better. Larded with phrases like “commitment to improving education” and “maintaining support for the nation’s most vulnerable students,” Trump proposes to slash federal education programs by $9.2 billion, or 13.5 percent. This is on top of past unmet needs, since federal obligations to poor and special education children have never been fully met. Starved programs are now set to have their rations reduced or cut entirely.
“With a remarkable lack of compassion, the Special Olympics budget was zeroed. Twenty-two programs are eliminated including community learning centers, arts, pre-school and teacher improvement.
Blind to clear evidence, every dollar invested in high-quality early childhood education returns $8 in positive social outcomes such as reduced unemployment, stable families, less incarceration and the like. Yet the Trump budget treats this wise and productive investment as another area to defund: Head Start and child care are slotted for small reductions, while preschool development grants are entirely eliminated.
“The “civil rights” framing is stunning doubletalk, since a growing body of independent research shows that school choice segregates students by race, handicap and socioeconomic level.
“It doesn’t get any easier for poor and middle-class students as they get older. Loan forgiveness programs for new college graduates working in schools or government would be eliminated. Student loan interest would be increased. In Trump’s plan, 300,000 students would lose their work-study jobs. In all, $143 billion would be removed over 10 years.
“Why make these cuts? The proposal calls for an increase in defense spending of more than $50 billion (a 10 percent increase) plus tax cuts for the wealthy – and that money has to come from somewhere. By these deeds, a capacity for war is valued more than the needs of the citizenry.
“Yet, Trump says “education is the civil rights issue of our time.” This budget raises questions about whether his true objective is to cut civil rights. The proposal’s centerpiece is school choice. The budget seeks to funnel $1.4 billion, in new as well as repurposed funds, into private schools. The “civil rights” framing is stunning doubletalk, since a growing body of independent research shows that school choice segregates students by race, handicap and socioeconomic level.”
Read on.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I agree about the double speak.
Mathis’ says “a capacity for war is valued more than the needs of the citizenry.” Giving public money to producers of war-making goods and services will get bonus points from some members of Congress because those investments have the potential for growing the economy. Will Trump also insist that military expendures be privatized even more than they already are?
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Kennedy and LBJ were the last of followers of the Keynesian economic policy in which the government invested in its people. We had a strong middle class and thriving unions. Since Reagan our presidents have been following Milton Friedman’s free market ideology including our democrats. People didn’t notice the rising income disparities under Clinton because we were in the a Dot Com and Wall St. bubble. As a result our income disparity our country has distorted our economic picture. Our working class has been undermined by globalization and privatization. Now the wealthy want to destroy public education. While republicans co-op the language of social justice, their true intent is destruction of the remaining social safety nets and exploitation anything for the common good.
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Actually the Republicans are all Keynesian’s when they are in office . It is not just tax cuts . They blow holes through the military budget while cutting social programs . Johnson left office after 8 years with 60 billion additional debt and it was lower as a percent of GDP . Reagan by almost 2Trillion . An increase of 180%….
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Republicans tend to put money in the wrong places like tax breaks for the wealthy. Today they are hardly “conservative,” they want to blow up most of the government except for the military.
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The most important thing for Republicans is tax cuts for the rich, tax cuts for the corporations because GREED. As Tom DeLay said in the early 2000s: the most important thing during a time of war is to cut taxes [on the rich]. As it turns out, it’s always the right time to cut taxes on the rich for the GOP.
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None of the leaders of the Civil Rights Issue of Our Time define what that means.
By what they do and not what they say, here is the definition.
The Civil Rights Issue of the DeVos and Trump era is a return to racism and segregation at its worst. It is an about-face and a return to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In fact, it is much worse than that because it means the end of labor unions, due process rights and so much more the people had to fight for ever since the end of the revolution and the formation of the United States by America’s Founding Fathers.
How long did it take for women to earn the vote?
How long did it take for children of all colors to grow up in a safer America without the threat of being sold into a form of slavery called servitude?
How many suffered and died to give birth to labor unions that represent the working class?
How many had to suffer before there was Social Security?
How many had to suffer and die before there was Medicare?
How long did it take to end slavery?
Who fought long and hard for the equal rights of all races?
And I mean all of the gains are up for a reversal back to the beginning.
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How long will it take to end state sponsored discrimination via inherent mental capabilities and/or home conditions and the level of parental involvement in which a child grows up, neither of which is under the “control” of the individual just as race, gender or disability is under the “control” of the individual?
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How long?
Several generations but only after a long effort to raise each generation to think differently so we have few if any voters like the deplorables that voted for the Kremlin’s Agent Orange, the serial lying, women groping, wife cheating psycho malignant narcissist in the White House.
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“How long will it take to end state sponsored discrimination via inherent mental capabilities”
Are you asking how long it will take to end state-sponsored discrimination against stupid people?
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Not at all FLERP, not at all.
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Thank god!
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As an attorney, FLERP can you see what I am driving at here? That to reward some, castigate and prevent others from their educational hopes and desires has to be seen as state sponsored discrimination. The state used to reward some-Whites, prevent others from their educational desires-African Americans/Native Americans, or reward males in spending and programs over females or reward the able bodies and not provide services for the handicapped, many times both physically and mentally handicapped? That discrimination was eventually adjudicated to be unconstitutional and laws promulgated and enforced to prevent that discrimination. What is different about the state discrimination via invalid standardized tests results and not allowing some to reap the rewards and benefits of schooling as they would desire? Other than at the moment it is still legal, even mandated for the state to discriminate in that fashion.
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