While Mr. Trump has repeatedly called for an outright dissolution of the agency, any effort to shutter it would require congressional action and support from some Republican lawmakers whose districts depend on federal aid for public education....
So it's just something to talk about, not actually do. So what is McMahon really going to try to do? She's the chairwoman of the pro-Trump super PAC America First Action.
[T]he America First Policy Institute has set out a more immediate list of changes it says could be achieved through vastly changing the department’s priorities. Those include stopping schools from “promoting inaccurate and unpatriotic concepts” about American history surrounding institutionalized racism, and expanding voucher programs that direct more public funds to parents to spend on home-schooling, online classes or at private and religious schools.
In his statement announcing the pick, Mr. Trump homed in on Ms. McMahon’s work at the America First Policy Institute, which he said focused on encouraging universal school choice policies across the 12 states that have adopted them so far. “Linda will fight tirelessly to expand ‘Choice’ to every State in America, and empower parents to make the best Education decisions for their families,” the statement said.
Hours before her announcement, Ms. McMahon posted a message on social media praising “apprenticeship programs” and highlighting examples of them in Switzerland, which is often cited as a high-performing country whose model the United States should follow....
Apprentice — there's a word with resonance. We seem to be talking about teaching young people specific marketable skills rather than channeling them into college. I'm sure that will be controversial... especially now that we've seen that it's the college-educated who vote Democratic and the working class has turned to Trump.
Posts
84 comments:
Yes the Ramalama and Elon show is just that. Thank you for your ideas. We’ll take them under advisement…
It does make more sense to team with Starbucks to have an apprentice program to train baristas instead of requiring people with 4-year gender study degree.
Somebody needs to tell prospective college indoctrinates that if a job can be done on laptop from a couch, then Raj can do it from Mumbai.
"We seem to be talking about teaching young people specific marketable skills rather than channeling them into college."
I'm pretty sure that engineering schools teach specific marketable skills as do nursing schools -- both are found in colleges and universities.
"Ms. McMahon will be in charge of overseeing what is widely expected to be a thorough and determined dismantling of the department’s core functions,"
When an article says, "widely expected", it loses credibility because that isn't backed up by anything. Perhaps the NYT could request an interview with Ms. McMahon.
It's widely expected that teachers would welcome an emphasis on apprenticeships. For decades, teachers have been irritated by the expectation that every student should go to college.
Here is Trump’s statement (via CTH):
“We will send education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort.”
Robert Conquest: Eventually every bureaucracy comes to behave as it if it is run by a cabal of its enemies.
Trump: Can we do that? Make it happen!
So, Trump is already backing away from the stuff that helped get him elected. I'm disappointed, or as my toddler nephew used to say, pissapointed.
I guess he figured he didn't have the votes. You know the GOP squishes remaining in Congress would've never voted for it. I wish their vote would have done on record though.
"We seem to be talking about teaching young people specific marketable skills rather than channeling them into college."
Somebody has to train the next generation of plumbers, electricians, carpenters, machinists, and welders.
I wouldn't be too concerned, Wilbur - the intermediate steps are important. Expand school choice - more parents can choose schools with solid curricula not based on social engineering. Promote apprenticeship and the trades - more young people reach quick and less expensive competency in a field that suits them well, and provide a backbone of skilled to highly skilled labor that has been languishing.
Once a federal department is created, it can never be shut down, no matter how useless it is. Too many rice bowls to fill.
The only thing the DOE should do is write block grants to school districts to guarantee a minimum budget. That function can be folded into something else, like HHS and, with communities still getting their money, maybe there’d be less opposition to shutting down the rest.
I was reliably promised Trump don’t need no stinkin’ congressional action; like Obama the Lightworker, the Orange Shimmy-Prancer is armed with a magic phone and pen and can do whatever he damn well pleases.
If not I guess it really is an era of diminished expectations just like the 1970s when people danced to the Village People.
I'm sure that will be controversial... especially now that we've seen that it's the college-education who vote Democratic and the working class has turned to Trump
@Althouse, I believe you meant to write college-educated
Reintroduction of basic skills as the primary focus of elementary schools would be a good start. Kids who can neither read nor do math in high school should not be graduating until they can.
Teachers unions’ power needs be reduced somehow. They’re destroying public education. Will state control help to break them?
Clearly the reference was to gender studies etc, that only qualifies someone to pull shots. Like AOC's degree, for instance.
The Hispanic majority high school where I teach in rural North Florida turns out all type of welders, carpenters, Hvac kids by the class load. Nurse and hospital techs too. I'll see your degreed coffee baristas with my plumber and his high school assistant. I'll raise you with them showing up on time - hell, just showing up.
Two things could vastly improve the education of our young people: (a) School Choice, and (b) learning usable skills that have value in the real world. Give this a listen: The Way I Heard It.
I'm steadily astounded by the American left's resistance to vouchers. In Québec, where I lived for decades, as well as the other provinces, there has long been a universal voucher system; over 50 years in the case of Québec. "The money follows the child, and the parents choose."
That applies to ALL schools, including private and religious. The Ministry of Ed establishes the official cost of educating a child at each level, and if parents choose a private school, that's where the money goes. In the '80s we chose to send our sons to an excellent boys-only private Catholic school for Grades 7 to 12.In today's money, I think the "top-up" for the two of them was U$1400 per year. Superb return on that investment.
Yet understand that Québec is the most liberal part of Canada, and its teachers are far more deeply unionised than those in the States.
What is the RESULT ? Canada is consistently in or near the Top 5 education-performance systems in the world, along with Scandinavia, Switzerland, Singapore, and so on.
The US has long struggled to remain in the Top 50, and the utterly irrational opposition to universal vouchers is probably the main reason for that sorry outcome.
Regardless of whether they can eliminate the DOE, there are a number of important actions they can take that would greatly improve the quality of our schools and return some sanity to how our young people are educated, including:
1) Eliminate any DEI programs and withhold all federal funds to any district that continues to fund any programs that promote racial or ethnic divisiveness.
2) Promote school choice, and provide grants for magnet schools and specialized schools (technology, trades, etc.) that draw community interest and improve student performance.
3) Develop apprenticeship programs in collaboration with industry to channel young people who do not wish to pursue post-secondary education.
4) Revamp and revitalize the Civics curriculum that emphasizes an accurate portrayal of U.S. History and the Constitution, as well as the duties and responsibilities of informed citizens in a free society.
Did you expect him to leave Biden appointments in charge while preparations were made to shrink and or dismantle the various useless departments. I don't see how naming a caretaker would lead to the conclusion that the department will continue in perpetuity.
Exactly. Change is a process not an event.
This is a test. Education is the single most useless federal Department. If we can wind it down and end it then there is hope for the Republic.
You are operating on several faulty assumptions.
The American Left wants obedient subjects not educated independent thinking citizens. It really is that simple.
"“We will send education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort.”"
Yes, that's in the NYT article too. It didn't make my excerpt because the idea is paraphrased and because it's clear that it's not going to happen, for reasons my excerpt is designed to make clear.
‘Linda raped me’ accusation in 3…2…1…
Let's all remember that it was the Harvard and Yale college graduates in the Biden Administration that brought us Covid19, 9% inflation, 7% interest rates, $5.75/gallon gasoline and $6/dozen eggs.
Fuck those assholes. Fire them and let them learn to code.
"Trump isn't going to shut down the Department of Education."
There's no need to. All you have to do is require Back To Work. Fire any employees who refuse to show up in the office. That is for-cause firing. 70% of the employees will be gone in a week.
You don't "eliminate" departments. You make them completely ineffectual and have your Department Head refuse to sign any checks to local governments that don't play along. Start funnelling the grants to OUR SIDE and laundering those grants back into the RNC.
Then the Democrats will get rid of the Department of Education.
The problem isn't federal aid to Local schools, the problem is Federal CONTROL over local schools. We don't need Dept of Ed "enforcers" making sure colleges obey Title IX or do DEI or do this or that. If Mississippi needs some more $ for education, just give it to them. If college students needs some loans, just give it.
Whenever you try do any reform of Dept of Education you run into the RINO's in the Senate. They want no change, unless its leftwing change. Its also why we're still funding NPR/PBS after 40 years of R Conservatives promising to defund it.
The Department of Education AND American education can be fixed/improved/saved by doing these few simple things:
(a) Mandate that any areas that accept federal education funds MUST allow full "funds follow the student" voucher programs for k-12 and trade training.
(b) Eliminate teacher unions.
(c) Stop providing ANY grants/loans/assistance to any higher education programs that are not STEM. You want to study dance or intersectionality get your money somewhere else. The country is NOT going to subsidies your education if it is NOT targeted at a hard science. Also ZERO loan discounts/forgiveness if you don't get As. We are not subsidizing your 4 year party.
(d) Anything in the DoE that is not part of the above, cut it.
I don't understand the conclusions being drawn from the article. Trump has talked about eliminating the DoE and instead sending education aid directly to the states. Whether or not that's achievable or will actually happen, it doesn't follow that it CAN'T happen on account of some Congressmen being from districts that depend on federal education dollars. The dollars could still flow into those districts without needing to preserve the DoE as we know it.
More important, let's not fall into the all-or-nothing dichotomy that Trump either eliminates DoE in its entirety or it's business as usual at that agency. I don't really care if there's a DoE, provided its mission is vastly reduced, states have ultimate control over public schools, and the trimmed-back DoE does not engage in promoting anti-American causes and beliefs.
Does anyone know what it takes to end a Cabinet-level department?
I am guessing that you need the House and the Senate to agree.
Sending education "back to the states" and under local control means if you live in Madison, WI and want people with penises in girls bathrooms, fine. But if you're in Sussex, WI where we don't want that insanity for our kids, it's not going to happen. We'll see which communities come out ahead.
This is a great parental rights pick. Remember, the current AG and Justice Dept went after parents who complained at school board meetings about having boy on boy blow job instruction manuals in Jr. High and grade school libraries.
The education establishment is the most corrupt and powerful in America. Look at what happened in WI with Walker's Act 10. Cleaning out the political woke ideology and Marxist indoctrination is going to be a battle.
Part of the reason this is difficult is because of the self promoting canonization of teachers and professors. They position themselves to be immune from criticism. We all saw their true colors during COVID. Kids weren't their priority.
Yes, use that Department to funnel taxpayer dollars to the RNC via billion-dollar grants to fake NGO's run by people on your side (and make sure they get a big cut of the profits so they stay loyal) ... you know, like the Democrats do.
Then Democrats will kill that department for you.
We need reform of the community colleges in conjunction with high schools to achieve what European schooling has done. In many states, students languish in the last two years of high school and then still have to complete redundant high school classes even if they’re working towards a trade. The impetus to do this is led by the feds, who have turned community colleges into big pots of gold by impelling universal admission instead of starting full-time trades training earlier in the high school years and retaining community colleges for busy or returning students who want a two-year medical degree or two years of cheap classes before transferring to a four-year program to finish. Universal admission and federal grants have created community colleges that function for some students like daycare centers — they get free money up front, plus debt they don’t understand, spend years not showing up and not launching in life, while the administrators do nothing about these dismal outcomes — because they’re making six figures and staffing classrooms with adjuncts making less than minimum wage. I had fine students, illiterate ones, and some who had family circumstances that made community college a good choice (they usually did very well). But most of the 60% who arrived in my classroom needing remedial math, reading, and writing had no business being there. They were there for the federal aid, most of which went into the administrators’ pockets, not the classrooms. I got my school’s salary list (public for any public school) and compiled a chart from it.
Fix that, and you have fixed a lot. Test and get kids into trade schools by 11th grade, with trade class offerings and trade charters starting in 9th grade. If they can’t read by 9th grade, they can’t read by the time they get to community college. And flunk them out if they can’t grasp basic math and reading skills needed for any job. You’re not doing them any favors letting them drift.
Also, burn down the schools of education that created all the DEI crap and anti-white curriculum and no-discipline schools and salt the earth above them.
Trump’s pick is a pretty good choice for all of this. McMahon did a good job at the SBA. She has been involved with conservative education action groups. I don’t see why she can’t do a lot to shift the power of the DOE back to states, shrink the Department, place its poverty-alleviating programs in HHS, loans programs somewhere, and thus eliminate the ideological litmus tests states must clear to access those funds. She could remake a lot of the DOE into a watchdog for academic choice, teacher-training, student standards, and waste.
This is also in the NYT article:
“Ms. McMahon is likely to be assigned the fraught task of carrying out what is widely expected to be a thorough and determined dismantling of the department’s core functions.”
And . . .
“On Monday, Vivek Ramaswamy . . . voiced support on social media for a proposal to shut down the department, calling the idea a ‘very reasonable proposal’.”
Two simple proposals:
1. Tax college endowments with the same regressive tax rate that the left wants to apply to millionaires and billionaires. Progressives love taxes.
2. Make colleges co-signers to federal loans of any student enrolled. There would be an instant collapse of all of the degree programs that are either useless in a free market (puppetry) or damaging to society (grievance studies).
"I don't understand the conclusions being drawn from the article. Trump has talked about eliminating the DoE and instead sending education aid directly to the states. Whether or not that's achievable or will actually happen, it doesn't follow that it CAN'T happen...."
I am predicting it won't happen, for 2 big reasons:
1. Congressional action would be required and that will prove too difficult to make happen. Too many cross-currents of interest.
2. There's a whole lot the Trumpers want to do in the field of education. They want their agenda in and the Dems agenda out much more than they want to send it all back to states.
Ms. WWE was not qualified to run the SBA and she is not qualified to run Education. Althouse may think this is another addition to "an exciting cast of characters in the new Trump administration", but this is just one more clown for the clown car
.
My High School had a wood shop, a metal shop, and an auto repair shop, complete with lifts. It's how I kept my car on the road, and how I learned to do basic auto work. Other kids did much more in all of these facilities, and went on to blue collar jobs, with a decent grasp of the basics before they ever hired on.
Then they bulldozed the facility and erected a brand new one in its place, with none of those facilities. Forward ! Progress !
So you are saying that Trump is full of shit, and if you didn't know he was full of shit when you voted for him (because there is no way he can keep all the contradictory promises he made), that's on you.
Not only that, but you were willing to vote for him, or at least not vote against him, even though you knew he was full of shit.
Would have been nice to know you thought Trump was full of shit before the election.
He’ll be able to roll back all the bureaucratic regulations. Congress would have to reinstate them, starting from scratch. The dems would then agree to dissolve it, perhaps.
There are ~100,000 STEM graduates from our colleges annually.
There are Millions of DEI/Psych/Sociology/Ed/Arts majors who actually lose value during their college years.
We should not be subsidizing any Racist or Sexist departments in University.
Prole is only smart enough to argue with his own straw men.
School choice will utterly destroy the teachers unions.
Nobody will choose to have their kids indoctrinated by State robots unless they are forced to.
The real problem is the teacher's union. Figure out a way to diminish their power.
oh - perfect - "Kruiser's morning brief:"
"Trump Tags In Linda McMahon to Body Slam Dept. of Education. “School choice is anathema to the Democrats, who are completely beholden to the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association. McMahon’s advocacy for school choice will have the Dems finishing off whatever Prilosec they may have left after the election."
If you cannot shut it down - clean it up.
Same thing where I live. The new high school didn't have shop classes. All that was moved to the regional vocational-technical school. Kids from the regular high school aren't any better educated, but their parents appreciate the class-based segregation. Private schools do quite well without vocational programs, but public high schools haven't been improved by getting vocational training out.
Buttigieg, Granholm, and Raimondo aren't qualified to run Transportation, Energy, and Commerce and they haven't been doing a very good job either, but Biden's team put them at the top of those departments. It's way too late to complain about McMahon. Everybody knows now that a cabinet secretary having special expertise or knowing anything what their departments do is the exception, rather than the rule.
Fire all employees that wont show up back to the office and move the office to Nome, AL.
How about the secretary To write 1 check a year to each state District or territory And that's it correct everyone else can go home The secretary can just make speeches.
Freder wins an argument with himself. That is the only person he could argue with here.
He isn't planning on sending it back to the states.
He is sending it back to the Parents.
That is what the leftists are really mad about. That is why Freder is arguing with himself with spittle flecks on the mirror.
Actually using the Department of Ed to force nationwide school choice is far more disruptive than just nuking it.
I am sure when congress is ready to eliminate the DOE Trump will sign the order. But we know the Democrats pretending to be Republicans in congress will not allow that.
Until then he is going to make them wish they ended the DOE.
And no we do not believe any of your moronic concern trolling here.
"... districts depend on federal aid for public education...". There's a problem right there. For every Federal employee and their piece of the program gone via Trump there will be (WAG) ten or more gone at regional, state and local level. Look at the number of students/teachers/"administrators" over the years. Insane numbers of drones all looking for someone to answer to them.
I'm curous about why "congressional action is needed". What is the law that needs to be passed to do that? Is that the same with ALL executive branch organizations? So none can be closed without congress's say so?
Q: You asshole! What am I supposed to do?
A: There's always barber college.
Freder is apparently concerned that corrupted science, DEI, anti-western and Marxist malarkey will no longer be forced-fed the chilluns.
- Krumhorn
Prole's is a well worn and tedious set of strawmen designed to do nothing more than fuel up his own self-stroking ego and above it all online persona.
And Field Marshall Freder is shouting his concerns from the center seat in the Leftist Clown Car of Collossal Clowniness.
college-matriculated. Few are educated in the real sense of the word of discipline of intellect, regulation of emotions, establishment of principles. We could say the are college-edumedicated
school choice will put a very large damper on unions. No doubt that is really why the democrats hate it so much. We must always remember, democrate wake up 24/7 trying to find ways to gain more political power, all day, every day.
Well said, it's like hearing republicans gripe that he didn't get the wall built. Well no but he effectively created a wall and he was pushing against a lot of republican resistance. The last time mcconnell would say "do this or I'll let the democrats impeach you", that threat is gone.
How many people does it take to divide the pot of money to be distributed by the number of students in each state and send off 50 checks?
Nightmare scenario for Field Marshall Freder:
"BREAKING: North Carolina House just voted to OVERRIDE Governor Roy Cooper's veto of a school choice bill.
The vote was 72 to 44, more than the required 60% supermajority.
The bill clears the school choice waitlist of 54,000 students by funding their scholarships."
Can you imagine the out of control anger welling up in Freder just contemplating all those minority parents using school funds to flee the public indoctrination centers for actual schools of learning?
No doubt similar to democrat overseers watching slaves escape the plantation.
Freder is going to love his time in the political wilderness.
Even Joe and Mika figured out the score. They have realized nobody thinks they are smart or "qualified" because they say so anymore. Freder is one of the slow lefties.
Today's apprentice, tomorrow's small business operator.
Why are people sending their tax dollars to Washington, just to have Washington turn around and send that money back (minus a small administrative fee) to the states? Wouldn't it make more sense to just keep those dollars in the states, for the use of students there? And wouldn't it mean more dollars available for educating students, when that federal "administrative fee" is eliminated? Isn't it a never-ending complaint that "more money is needed for education"? Well, doing this would provide more. Without raising taxes.
Ms. WWE was not qualified to run the SBA and she is not qualified to run Education.
She ran a multi-billion dollar industry in the form of the WWE. She's more than qualified to run your precious, corrupt federal agencies.
Asshole.
What Randomizer said. My father was a teacher (history, government, economics) and he always supported (and still does) those programs. IIRC the district had programs for food service, dental hygienist, print shop (printed everything for the district), auto shop (including the latest diagnostics), construction, audio and visual (working with the cable company to produce a weekend video music show), drafting and CAD-CAM, electronics, metal working, and so on.
Not every student is college bound, and many got a good start in high school.
I did the community college for two years before transferring to university. Worked, stayed at home, saved money, graduated with no debt. Worked for me and others.
"Not every student is college bound, and many got a good start in high school."
I caught the drafting bug in shop class when I was in 7th grade. I tried college but gave it up since it didn't really interest me and went out and got a job as a draftsman. That ended up being my career, retiring a couple of years ago after nearly 30 years with my last employer. Never got rich but at one point, I owned houses in both ID and AZ. I am currently debt-free, paid cash for my last car and have a nice balance in my bank account.
Recently, my last employer reached out to me, looking for someone to do some part time drafting/design work at a significant increase over what I was earning before retiring. The extra money is nice, as is the freedom to work (or not) as I please.
Don't listen to anyone who tells you that you need to go to college. You don't.
Well put Mike
Mikey: I met a lot of great kids doing just that. They were mostly kids who couldn’t waste money and had good life plans formed early in life. I met with every student, and one I remember well wanted to become a marine biologist. I let him write his papers about the history of early expeditions and marine discoveries, in an humanities class. There’s a lot of cool history there.
Other kids I advised to drop out, work in fast food, get some discipline and get on a manager track if they could. And stop stinking up the classroom with weed.
Georgia has a nice balance of technical schools and community colleges. But we have to start a lot earlier putting remedial kids in trades they might excel in and elevate the prestige of trade schools.
You’re trolling again, Mark.
Yep.
Our SW Florida Church had a lovely ceremony celebrating all the kids going to college, the military, and trade schools. It’s about getting kids started in life.
We need Historians, Literature Professors, Criminologists, and Foreign Language educators.
Just different ones.
Actually, Althouse, the educational reform movement is one of the more seasoned groups I worked with. They are also the most beleaguered, so they deserve some credit for dealing with that.
After years of experimentation, they have decided four things: school choice; reinstating and expanding early tracking to give each child the best chance to create a productive life, reinstating real discipline in the classroom, and getting the toxic DEI people and programs out of the teacher training schools.
It’s a lot of work and will take time. But they are committed. A big percentage are retired educators. And actually working through established and relatively attention-averse groups. The nuts are the one “speaking for them” in the news.
This will not happen overnight. It didn’t start overnight. It’s the largest part of every state budget, bar a few flagrant ones spending all their money on drugs and illegals. And those state budget education chambers, regardless of political affiliation, treat education like their own personal slop bucket. That’s where the real fight will occur.
Post a Comment