The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is publishing a series of guest columns this week from some educators, education experts and a student asking them what President Donald Trump and his administration should focus on during his term. This is the last of these columns.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has asked me to share what I hope Donald Trump will do for education. The short answer: scrap the bureaucracy strangling American education.
The long answer begins with acknowledging an uncomfortable truth: The government doesn’t care about your kids. Let’s review the facts. The Department of Education’s budget has soared to an all-time high, yet nationwide performance in English and math has hit its lowest point in decades. Since 2000, the number of teachers increased by 8% to match a 7% rise in student enrollment, yet administrative staff has nearly doubled. Despite such a massive expansion in the number of administrators and affording them an average pay exceeding $100,000 a year, investigations continue to reveal a rampant culture of mismanagement. The department routinely ignores the majority of calls they receive, leaving millions of students at a loss. The majority of department files are either lost or incomplete, with tens of millions (that we know of) mysteriously disappearing every year.
When a growing number of students began failing the reading, writing and math requirements necessary for graduation, the Oregon Board of Education didn’t address the underlying causes. Instead, they just scrapped the standards. More than half of Oregon’s graduating classes now lack proficiency in English and math. New York is outright kicking students out of school to make space for migrants. Many more examples of state failures exist, but I’d run out of space before covering them all.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Allow me to reiterate: the government doesn’t care about your kids. The foremost priority of our leaders — be it former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D.-Calif., or former U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R.-N.C., or any career politician from either party — is not the well-being of American children. It’s padding their stock portfolios. Your average bureaucrat making minimum wage isn’t fixated on student outcomes either; they’re busy finding the best spots in the office to slack off in.
The federal government is a sprawling bureaucratic superstructure comprising 438 agencies and 3 million employees. It is a bloated machine that has plunged the nation into $36 trillion of debt and still continues to routinely misplace hundreds of billions of dollars every year. To this giant entity, your child will always be just another statistic to process, archive and forget. Their learning is, at best, a side benefit.
The American people voted for Trump in hopes that he will do what he does best: shake up the system.
For Trump, fixing America’s educational crisis doesn’t entail more department programs, regulations and addendums. It means taking a step back and returning control to the people. Trust the teachers who know your kid’s name, not the faceless bureaucrat whose only interaction with your children is through a spreadsheet. Lower taxes so parents can choose private school if it’s necessary. Expand voucher programs so hardworking students aren’t trapped in failing public schools. Empower charter schools to thrive so that for once, the Department of Education has real competition keeping it on its toes.
What will make the second Trump administration so unique is how different it will be from the standard. No one knows exactly what the proposed Department of Government Efficiency has in store. No one knows what Trump’s precise plans for decentralization might entail. That’s good. For American education to reclaim its spot beneath the sun, we need innovation and we needed it yesterday. That requires a willingness to break from the old and experiment with radical ideas that may not even exist yet.
My Republican friends and I are excited precisely because we do not know Trump’s exact plans for education. We don’t want a leader who will repeat the same talking points and policies that have failed us for the past four decades. We voted for a leader who will make the bold but necessary decision of replacing an outdated department with the innovation and passion of everyday American families.
Si Kai Feng is an Emory University student who restarted Emory College Republicans last year.
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