On Thursday, Donald Trump finally gave a few details about the education policies he’d enact if elected. Unsurprisingly, the two major teachers’ unions in the country weren’t pleased with his proposals.
Both unions have endorsed Hillary Clinton.
“Donald Trump isn’t serious about doing what’s best for our students, and he’s clueless about what works,” Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, said in a press release. “His silver bullet approach does nothing to help the most-vulnerable students and ignores glaring opportunity gaps while taking away money from public schools to fill private-sector coffers.”
Trump’s plan wouldn’t necessarily take money from public schools, though. His $20 billion plan to expand school choice says it would re-prioritize existing federal dollars, but it’s unclear whether that money would come from current education funds.
“Donald Trump hasn’t done his homework,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said. “Today’s speech on education repeats the same flawed ideology anti-public education zealots have been shilling for years.”
Trump described his plan as a block grant to states, where each state would develop its own formula for distribution to students in poverty. States would have the option of participating, though Trump said he would campaign for participation “in all 50 states.” He called on states to provide funds on top of the federal funds, providing up to $12,000 for each student living in poverty to use at the school of their choice.
Weingarten went on to attack Trump over Trump University. “He wants to hand our public schools over to private businesses so they can make a profit — no surprise, from a man whose idea of education can best be summed up in Trump University, a fraudulent enterprise built to rip off hardworking students. As far as I’m concerned, his ideas on public education don’t earn a passing grade,” she said.
Trump also said he supports merit pay for teachers, though he didn’t detail what he would do on the federal level to support the idea. Neither union president seemed to respond specifically to that part of Trump’s proposal, though teachers’ unions are generally opposed to the concept.
Eskelsen Garcia also took the opportunity to attack Trump’s behavior on the campaign trail. “We’ve seen behavior from Donald Trump that we would never accept in a classroom,” Eskelsen Garcia said. “We need a president who stands up to bullies — not one who embraces their tactics.”
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
