On the surface, many of Donald Trump’s policies on education may seem attractive, even to those who are affiliated with the Democratic party.
For example, on Trump’s rhetoric of giving K-12 students a voucher to choose the school that they want to attend, what K-12 student do you know would disagree with that?
But here is where Trump’s policies become tricky next.
And this is because what sounds empowering and promising on the surface, can actually negatively affect those who felt or imagined that Trump’s educational policies would cater to them in reality.
So with that now written out, and despite my belief that our present educational system still has many flaws, here is some evidence anyway as to why my assertion above regarding Trump’s educational policies may be accurate anyways.
For example, some of Trump’s educational policies include using the public’s money to fund private education, getting rid of Common Core, getting rid of the Department of Education; and implementing his own idea of a voucher system which will allow K-12 students a chance to pick the schools that they attend.
In fact, Trump even touts that his policies will allow many low-income students to now attend private universities. But here is where things turn sour (well at least to me anyways).
For one, one of Trump’s intents is to completely remove the Department of Education in America. Wow, what a mighty proposal. But what are some of Trump’s justifications for such an intent?
Well firstly; Trump feels that the states should have more control of schools.
Next, Trump has many objections to the way the Department of Education operates, and feels as if the government shouldn’t even charge interests on the loans that they provide to students (which thus enables the government to make a profit on the money that they give the public).
Furthermore, Trump feels that our educational system caters more to teachers and unions than it does for our American students.
And so with such criticisms that have been made by Trump himself on the US’ educational system and/or policies, it is those criticisms then, which are parallel to many of Trump’s own explanations for why many American students still continue to fail…
And of which supports Trump’s belief as to why he must change the way that our system of education plays out in our America too.
But here is where my criticism of Trump kicks in.
For example, even if we assume that Trump’s criticisms of our current educational policies aren’t wrong, and that our government really should not be able to make money off the citizens they educate for instance.
This still should never indicate to any person, American or not; that Trump’s own policies over education in America are to be even more effective than the one’s currently in place.
Anita Zheng, a college student who emigrated from China, but who now attends her course lectures in New York City felt this way about Trump.
“He doesn’t seem to really know what he’s doing as it relates to government, and so my hope is that the changes he will bring to our educational system does not turn out too bad as well.”
But what does Trump himself feel that an improved system of education would entail?
Perhaps it is the fact that Trump himself believes in privatized education.
In fact, his recent selection of Betsy Devos as his Secretary of education is a person who is the chair of the American Federation for Children (AFC).
And in case you are unfamiliar with them. The AFC is an organization whose goals are to give students more of an ability to choose more private schools.
But what is so wrong with privatized education? Well if everything was perfect about it, then perhaps there wouldn’t be any thing in it of itself that is wrong then.
Yet as with many of the glamourized intents of our politicians, the ways things play out in reality are very different from how such intents are described vocally.
So a privatized system of education means this to me.
It means an educational system that exists with a vested interest of personal profits and revenue. Which is a system to my beliefs that would undermine a student’s Academic integrity.
And so for example, if he gets what he wants, Trump would abolish many (if not all) federally provided grants which are backed by our Department of ED; such as with the PELL grant.
At the same time however, Trump proposes that $20 Billion dollars’ of federal funds should come from taxpayers to help alleviate the burdens of low income students who are to enroll into charter or private schools.
But here is where things may become interesting.
For example, in 2016 the Pell grant has spent over $22.5 Billion dollars in non-repayable grant money for many college students of financial need.
So even if Trump disagrees with federal funding, his own policies are not devoid of such a practice either.
Yet at the same time however, Trump’s policies over the US’ education system if implemented; would contribute even less to millions of students of need, than Trump’s privatized educational system claims to not wanting to fail.
And so what this means for students who already have a difficult enough time paying for the costs of their tuitions; and even with Uncle Sam’s support, well now you can turn to the private sector for support instead (as if that is the more effective option for us).
So even though Trump who says that he will help poorer students to attend private schools, what Americans perhaps should really expect is that an even lesser amount of poor students would be funded under Trump’s management.
But now here is where things can get really (potentially) selfish.
So for one, a privatized educational system means that tuitions and enrollment costs goes toward a business man’s own bank account rather than back to the government.
And so even if Trump himself criticizes the government for making a profit off of their students, he himself doesn’t offer a statement to morally justify that it is ok for the private-sector to now make money off of the public instead, right?
And so here is where things can get even more interesting.
Trump, who is set to propose tax exemption for schools, any school, in turn is actually seeking to create tax breaks for any of the private schools that make money off the public, but now – potentially pay zero or lesser taxes for doing just as that!
And now here is another problem too.
Without the Department of Education which regulates many of the schools, colleges; and federally funded programs in America, students in turn would be left to obtain student loans from banks.
But why is this potentially more awful than obtaining loans from the government?
Well for one, banks can reject loans for those they do not deem as credit worthy (many of whom are non-white American youth).
And Trump who says “That’s probably one of the only things the government shouldn’t make money off” when he talks about federally provided loans option, doesn’t exactly have any issues with US tax payers paying for a voucher system which provides profits for the private-sector however.
And here’s the kicker, even if there is merit in the belief that our government should not profit off of the citizens that they provide loans for.
At the same time however, it is important still for us not to forget the fact that students often prefer to borrow from the government anyway.
Since often times government loans have several times less interest than the loans which are offered by private instructions.
And thus here in lays my problem with Trump, which is this…
Trump’s criticisms of the United States’ educational system should never necessarily suggest that Trump himself would adopt any more effective, (or less profiteering) practices when his policies are implemented in reality.
And so who is threatened the most by Donald Trump when it comes to his educational policies?
Well first there are Dreamers and DACA recipients, who are about 5 million or more undocumented students that attend school in the US.
In Fact, Trump plans to erase many of funding behind initiatives such as DACA, DAPA, and the Dream Act. Because Trump “want[s] dreamers to come from this country [first]” as he stated himself at a press conference in Hanahan SC.
Now to my beliefs, what group of American students are threatened next by Trump’s educational policies?
Well my guess would be it is the students who are of a lower-socioeconomic bracket, and of which a large portion of such students are of Hispanic or Black heritages.
But how are less affulent students to be threatened by Trump’s educational policies if he speaks about giving Americans not just a choice, but a voucher for getting to the schools that they want? Well here’s my views for it.
Well at the very least, here are my views for that.
Most of Trump’s rhetoric on his voucher system pertains to K-12 students, and not those who are college bound.
Beyond that point, however, if Trump does get rid of government funding as he intends for, then students who still wish to go to college; should just take out loans from the banks or private institutions next right?
Of course, because Banks or organizations from among the private-sector would most definitely offer lower interest rates, and more loan forgiveness than our government that exists now does, this shouldn’t ben an issue for many American Students anyway; right?
But that is me being sarcastic.
Last but not least, who is the next largest group of people who are at a risk because of Trump?
It is our professors and teachers. But how so exactly?
Well if Trump gets rid of the Department of ED intends for, you can say goodbye to many of the teacher unions that exist in this country too.
And so if you are left uncertain about the future of America’s school under Trump, then you are definitely not alone with such feelings either.
In fact professor Nicholas M Juszczak who teaches undergraduate psychology classes at Baruch College, had this to say about Trump’s educational policies.
“I don’t think Donald Trump has really articulated any real policy, he ran a campaign on sheer demagoguery”.
In addition, Juszczak followed up this point by saying “The best indication right now as to [know] how his policies may emerge rises from looking at his cabinet choices, and so far I don’t like what I see.”
“The devil is in the details,” says Juszczak, who adds that “ [Trump] is really engaged in what I call smoke and mirror”.
And by the end of our conversation Juszczak eventually just told me “I just don’t know how it will play out”.