Have you been wondering how President-Elect Trump will deal with our country’s education issues? Will he “take the bull by the horn” and begin the process of helping our
students or will he leave education issues in the dust to pursue relations with Russia, Putin and the like? As a country, we wait on the eve of the Inauguration to see what 2017 and beyond holds in terms of the education forecast.
Author, Claudio Sancho of NPR has his crystal ball all polished up and ready to go with his own forecast for our schools in 2017. Based on Trump’s stated educational beliefs so far, Sancho predicts he will favor more for-profit and private groups to incentivize our K-12 educational system. His business sense and blue collar campaign slogans call for more jobs for hardworking Americans. In addition, his proposed appointment of Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary seems to indicate he will alienate the teaching unions and encourage the lifting of current sanctions on charter schools.
This marks a definitive shift from our current system where federally subsidized funds are allocated to the states. Mr. Sancho believes that President-Elect Trump will likely encourage a much more competitive atmosphere in our K-12 schools. He also expects that such a change in atmosphere will result in the decrease of funding to early childhood education (Pre-K ), thereby resulting in negative impacts. Transversely, community colleges, may actually benefit in 2017. It seems their focus on training students from all walks of life fits better into a Trump-inspired educational system.
Whatever the fate of our children, students, and public education system, it is clear that the change in our country’s leadership may have a profound impact. Competition for funding and privatization look to be the major influencing factors.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Mr. Sancho currently holds a 3/6 record from last year’s education predictions. Looks like we’ll have to wait and see if his stats improve or not.
Article can be found at the following site:
http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/01/03/506585375/5-education-stories-to-watch-in-2017?