Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump visit Saint Andrew’s Catholic School in Orlando, Florida in 2017. Credit: Flickr/whitehouse45 (public domain)
Here’s our problem
The education system in this country does not have the resources it needs to equip our kids to thrive. Instead, our schools are underfunded, understaffed and grappling with unsafe conditions. Young people cannot succeed in the job market or contribute to society in a fulfilling and meaningful way without a quality education. Schools are cornerstones of our communities but aren’t treated that way.
The problem isn’t actually as complicated as the politicians say, it’s this simple: Schools don’t have enough money, and without money they, can’t pay for the programs and staffing they need to educate students well.
On average, 36% of a school district’s funding comes from local property taxes. That means that wealthy communities where houses are expensive get much more money for their schools than working class communities. 46% of school funding comes from state governments, giving politicians at the state level another opportunity to unfairly direct money to wealthier residents at the expense of the neighborhoods they always choose to leave behind. The federal government consistently underfunds its existing promises to districts, especially for special education services.
The con game of billionaires
Trump chose WWE founder Linda McMahon to lead the education department for his administration. She has absolutely no qualifications for the job – she has never been a teacher, a principal or even a researcher. So why would McMahon be selected to be the most important education official in America? Because she is willing to wage war on public education.
Charter school corporations say they are offering parents “school choice.” And understandably, many parents are searching for an alternative to the under — resourced schools in their neighborhood. But there is no consistent evidence that students in charter schools achieve higher academic success. And at the same time, charters speed up the decline of traditional schools. Every time a student switches to a charter, the school district takes away a certain amount of funding from neighborhood schools and instead gives it to the corporation that runs the charter school the student enrolled in. Charter schools, which do not have a mission to educate EVERY child, are well known for expelling underperforming students arbitrarily and offering hardly any special education services.
The real answer for the working class
This is the richest country in the history of the world thanks to the labor of generations of working people.
Instead of using that wealth to meet the needs of the people and provide a decent future for our children, a tiny handful of millionaires and billionaires hoard it. We can redistribute the wealth by imposing a 100% tax on all income over $10 million. Who needs more than $10 million anyway? Wouldn’t that money be better spent on schools than on buying a yacht or a second home for some CEO? This way, we could finally make sure our kids have access to the resources they deserve. We could upgrade collapsing buildings and replace worn-out textbooks with the latest technology. We could make sure that high-quality music, art and athletic programming is available to all students during and after school. We could hire more teachers and other staff to make sure that class sizes are small and schools are orderly. All of this can be done with extensive, grassroots input from local communities to tailor upgrades to the area’s specific needs.
Trump’s real agenda: Take from working people, give to billionaires
Trump is a billionaire, was elected with the help of other billionaires, and runs the government on behalf of the billionaire class. Like all the politicians – Democrat or Republican – Trump will say anything to get elected. He ran a campaign promising to stand up for working people against the powerful elite. And people are right to want to take on the corrupt, ultra-rich class that dominates the government and the economy. But the policies Trump is planning to implement, and the people who he is appointing to implement them, show that his real agenda is redistribute even more wealth from the bottom to the top.
Every right we have was fought for and won. In the 1930s, unions were legalized, social security was created, child labor was outlawed and many other policies were implemented in response to demands from the labor movement. In the 1960s and 1970s, Jim Crow segregation was overthrown and there was historic progress towards both racial equality and equality for women in society. Medicaid and Medicare were established too, along with affordable housing programs.
The real goal of Trump and the billionaires he’s appointed to lead the government is to destroy this historic progress and find new ways to make huge profits in the ruins of our rights. He wants working people to fight among ourselves – immigrants workers vs. U.S.-born workers, for example – so that he can get away with this scam without anyone noticing. But if the working class unites, then we can defeat these attacks and win a whole new system.
This article is also available as a downloadable pamphlet here.
