Thursday was a day of mixed messages for those in public education.
If in a “hot spot” of high rates of coronavirus, schools should postpone opening, President Donald Trump advised Thursday.
But if they delay, then they do not deserve the tens of billions of dollars in new federal aid, he said, and advised parents to put their children in private schools or homeschool.
“If the school is closed the money should follow the student,” Mr. Trump said.
Never in my life has a president been so against public education.
It’s not lost on Americans that the communities hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic are those in densely populated cities with high concentrations of minorities.
To punish those in most need is why the United States is increasingly becoming a country of the haves and have-nots.
Mr. Trump frequently refers to public schools as “flailing government schools,” but instead of committing to their improvement he works to divert funding into private school voucher programs. Earlier this year Mr. Trump urged Congress to create a $5 billion federal tax credit program to fund scholarships to private and religious schools. Anti-public education proponents refer to this as “school choice.”
Ninety percent of students attend public schools.
And you know what? They’re great.
Studies show that private schools do no better and often worse in terms of student academic achievement than public schools.
What makes the biggest difference? Income security.
Kids that come from homes where food and shelter aren’t a worry fare better in school.
AT THURSDAY’S conference, the President stood in front of a map of the United States indicating the current coronavirus hot spots. Large swaths of the southeast — and just about all of Florida — are in the grips of the virus.
Begrudgingly, he acknowledged the uncontrollable transmission of the virus in such areas and that schools there may need to delay in-person learning until infection rates come down.
