Donald Trump isn’t known for keeping his cards close to his chest, but although President-elect Trump has loose lips for most things, education is not one of them. Therefore what little we do know will be key to figuring out what education will look like in America over the next four years. There are three main objectives that he's discussed publicly:
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Push the School Choice initiative.
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Dispose of the Common Core initiative.
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Dramatically reduce or eliminate the Federal Education Department.
Let’s start with School Choice.
School Choice is an initiative that seeks to tackle the inequality a large proportion of school children face. Rather than children having to attend the local public school, which may happen to be a failing school, children will have the choice of where they want to go – whether that be the local public school, a charter school, or a private school.
Federal education dollars will go to states instead of directly to schools, with the intention to then follow the children to whichever school they decide to go to. More choice, it is argued by pro School Choicers, will create a healthy competition in the school marketplace and will raise students learning.
The main issue for Trump’s team is the fact that the US spends more than most developed countries on education (per child), but their school students get worse results. There is clearly something broken in the US education system, and those hit hardest are, as per usual, the people at the bottom of society.
Those who come from less privileged backgrounds find it increasingly hard to compete with those who can afford private education. The point of this objective is to level the playing field, enabling children from poorer backgrounds to receive the education they need to improve their future prospects.
The problem with School Choice is that it will take money away from public schools. Tax-payer money instead will go to private institutions such as privately funded and for-profit schools. This takes money from the state and puts it into private pockets. In the short-term a selection of children may be able to go to a better school, but in the long run it devalues and breaks down the public school sector.
In the UK this is seen through the discussion of bringing back grammar schools, an initiative seen from the off-set as allowing intelligent children who can’t attend private school to be able to get a ‘better education’. But what does that do for the children who don’t get into a grammar? They’re branded as failures, and left behind.
We have school systems all over the world which do better than the UK and the US that do not segregate their children. Why would we adopt a model that doesn’t work when there are plenty of examples around the world that do?
What about the Common Core objective?
The Common Core State Standards is a clear set of goals for the skills and knowledge that children should have at each stage of their schooling. The ambition is that children will then have the competencies they need so that they are prepared to succeed in their later lives, whether that be through getting into college, their career or otherwise.
The idea is reminiscent of the core objectives explored in our blog about the Finnish education system. Common Core is often critised by people on both political sides and has become a highly conscientious talking point in education.
Trump wants to destroy the Common Core and let individual states decide how education works. The Common Core is seen as the federal government being ‘too involved’ in state affairs, which leads onto his next promise.
To shrink or eliminate the Federal Education Department.
Of course, as we’ve seen in Finland, more power and decision processes being handed to schools and teachers can give them the confidence to do what’s right for the pupils they have in front of them. Allowing individualised education to happen.
However, this move wouldn’t see that power being handed to schools, it would pass the control to individual states. It’s hard to tell what kind of effect this would have on education.
The position of Education Secretary would give us some insight into which direction Trump is going to head in, but at the moment names are being tossed in and out of the ring to make it too close (and confusing) to call. The candidates range from Betsy DeVos – chairwoman of the American Federation for Children – a charter school promotion group, to Michelle Rhee, former Chancellor of the Washington DC public schools. Rhee came into direct conflict with teacher unions during her time in this position, by firing headteachers and imposing stricter teacher evaluations.
Whoever he picks, will most likely heavily favor the pro-school choice movement. It remains to be seen whether the Common Core and the Federal Education Department will survive the appointment of the new secretary.
Trump and his supporters’ stance seems to be on reducing the regulation of education and letting schools fight it out, like businesses do. But schools aren’t businesses, they weren’t ever meant to be. The purpose of businesses is to beat the others by making larger profits.
Schools aren’t supposed to beat each other - what happens to the pupils in the schools that are being beaten? And what happens when schools are shut down because they can’t compete, so there aren’t enough school places? Do we increase the class size in ‘better’ schools until the teachers can't cope?
Schools are supposed to support pupils and prepare them for life. They are one of the few institutions left in the world whose primary focus isn’t money, whose purposes are to serve the community which they are in. They are not to be turned into competition machines, with test results and profit margins being the overall goal. Of course we want to change schools for the better, but how we change them is the most important thing.
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If you liked this, you might be interested in reading our blog post: The Finnish Way of Educating
Or head over to our Visions page, to hear what educational professionals think the future of education should look like.
For further sources on Trump's education policy, check out these articles:
Donald Trump releases education proposal, promoting School Choice
Michelle Rhee Meets with Trump
Why Trump's Education Secretary might already have their hands tied