Destroying Education and Critical Thinking Key To the Success of Authoritarian Governments
It’s not often I quote U.S. military commanders, but this statement from now-deposed Defense Secretary James Mattis is excellent.
It’s interesting how many data points are aligning in U.S. politics, starting with the destruction of public education, including content from this article:
• Making broad cuts to public education and the surrounding programs that help students learn. In President Trump’s budget, the administration zeroed out the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which provides $1.2 billion to districts across the country for after-school programs that support students and working families. This funding serves more than 1.6 million students participating in these programs.
• Eliminating federal funding to support teacher quality. In President Trump’s budget, the administration zeroed out Title II of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which provides $2.4 billion to states and districts for teacher recruitment, training, retention, and support. This cut translates to a loss of 40,000 teacher salaries.
• Nominated the highly unqualified and anti-public school Betsy DeVos as secretary of education. DeVos’s only experience with education is as a lobbyist and megadonor pushing private school voucher schemes in states across the country. Instead of working to support public schools and the students that attend these schools, she has called public education a “dead end.”
• Rescinded the Obama administration’s regulations that supported school accountability under the new Every Student Succeeds Act. Through the Congressional Review Act, Congress and President Trump eliminated key protections and guidance for states and districts to implement the law, leaving significant confusion at the state and local level. The Trump administration has also signaled that it will take a very lax enforcement stance with states, opening the door for states to ignore their responsibilities to protect vulnerable students.
• Rescinded the Obama administration’s regulations that supported improving teacher preparation programs. Through the Congressional Review Act, Congress and Trump eliminated requirements for states to make sure that teacher preparation programs are helping prospective teachers gain the skills needed to be successful in the classroom and support student learning. Without these regulations, states will continue to struggle to improve teacher preparation programs and support the most effective programs.
• Proposed cutting $9 billion from public education while spending $1.4 billion on school choice. This proposal includes harmful private school voucher schemes and the creation of a new $250 million federal program that will allow taxpayer dollars to flow to private schools, which are not accountable; can discriminate in admissions and discipline; and are not subject to basic monitoring, oversight, and civil rights laws.
• Proposed cutting crucial support for school reform efforts. By zeroing out support for the AmeriCorps program, President Trump would undercut many of the most successful education organizations—from KIPP Public Charter Schools, to Teach For America, to City Year—that have had positive effects on students across the country and rely on that program.
Then we observe various complementary techniques, used throughout history for promoting fascist regimes into power:
• Dissidents labeled traitors by the U.S. president and his aligned congresspeople
• Mainstream media dubbed “fake news”
• Universities denounced for turning out progressives
Craig,
Your long and incoherent tirade failed to mention that Federal funding for educations represents only 4% of the US education budget.
The federal government has very little influence over education, a fact you already know but choose to ignore because it doesn’t suit your agenda.
Perhaps this is why several thousand Trump supporters gathered outside in the 30-degree weather to watch President Trump’s speech on a jumbo television screen, in Iowa this week.
In the words of a worried senior Iowa Democrat, ” what concerns me is whether they backed him in 2016 or were more recent converts, one factor his supporters kept bringing up was their feeling that he had delivered on his promises in a way other elected officials have not”.
More typical of those trump stalwarts standing in the freezing conditions was Ryan Chapman of Indianola, who was quoted in an interview for the Washington Examiner explaining his support for President Trump:
” I actually voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, but here I am at a Trump rally in a MAGA hat. Last time, I voted for Clinton because of her experience. My mind changed when I see how unfairly the media attack the President, and how they belittle him in every decision he makes. I have not seen a president smeared this much in my life time. The scale of irrational hatred towards this President has sickened me.”
President Trump has not been destroyed by the tirade of hatred launched against him, in fact attacks by CNN, NYT etc have actually won him converts.
He will have something going for him in 2020 that he didn’t have in 2016. His domestic policy gains, foreign policy achievements as well as the economic metrics, all serve to make him no longer “a leap of faith”.
Americans have grown used to the President’s somewhat crude style and personality flaws, while growing weary of the endless cries of “Wolf” and sensationalist conduct be his enemies.
Even the venerable anti-Trump Washington Post acknowledged that Trump rallies were growing in size with at least 30% new supporters.
This phenomenon should be deeply worrying for Democrats. Surprisingly, it doesn’t seem to have penetrated to most “Never Trumpers” that it’s their hate filled rhetoric and increasingly desperate rantings that are the President’s biggest asset when gaining support!