Our Public Schools and Common Good Depend on It

According to the New York Times, Project 2025 suggests that the federal Department of Education should be “eliminated”. The Republican Party’s 2024 platform shares this idea and although Trump has been trying to distance himself from it, there is plenty of proof that he has endorsed it in the past. Not only that, but his positions are even weirder.

It is not surprising, that Trump’s position on education is low on content and high on red meat. He promises “the direct election of school principals by the parents” and to cut “federal funding for any school or program pushing critical race theory, gender ideology or other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content to our children”. To counter the threat he says is posed by the “Marxists” and “pink-haired Communists teaching our kids”, he’ll “create a new credentialing body” (the “world’s gold standard”), “to certify teachers who embrace patriotic values, support our way of life and understand that their job is not to indoctrinate children but very simply to educate them.” Wait, whaaaaaaat?

Firstly, under our current laws, he can’t make good on his promise to allow parents to directly elect principals. And, why do they need to? Parents (and other voters) already elect governing board members responsible for oversight of district administration. If parents aren’t happy with the way the school is run, they have the power to address it. Secondly, just so I understand, teaching kids the true history of America as a multi-cultural melting pot that has promised, but not always delivered, liberty and justice for all is indoctrination. But, teachers embracing patriotic values (as defined by the right-wing) and supporting our way of life (assuming “our” refers to white, heterosexual, Christians with children) is not indoctrination. Good to know.

What is also good to know, is that these issues were those of the last election, not of this one. As reported in The74, “an online survey of 1,300 likely 2024 voters – including parents of school-age children, found Americans now care about different issues related to public education: safety, high-quality teaching, and literacy. Or as The74 puts it, safe schools and kids who can read.

The truth is, Trump and his GOP cronies aren’t out to improve academic outcomes for all America’s children. They are out to keep the rich and powerful ensconced in their ivory towers by dividing the rest of us. This is why they promote the privatization of our public schools and couch (maybe I should have used a different word here) it as school choice and parental empowerment. The truth is that where vouchers have gone on the ballot, voters have rejected them. Voters know that our public schools are the hubs of our communities. They bring us together and help bond us in a shared identity. There is power in this shared identity.

We can though, fight back. We must vote for lawmakers who will legislate for the next generation versus the next election. We must recognize that America’s public schools have always been a big part of our success as a nation and are our best solution to ensure the “educated citizenry” Thomas Jefferson wrote was “a vital requisite for our survival as a free people”.

I am no pedagogical expert, but I learned a long time ago that people care how much you care, long before they care how much you know. So, let’s just start with really caring. That would mean we no longer accept firearms as the number one cause of death for children in the U.S. killing more children each year than car accidents, drug poisoning, drowning, and suffocation. Everytown.com reports that in 2024, there were at least 124 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 34 deaths and 71 injuries nationally. It is inexcusable that school shootings are now just a way of life in classrooms around our country and lockdown kits are yet something else schools need along with locked single entry points, metal detectors, cameras, and active shooter drills. If we continue to allow the carnage, we just don’t care enough and that simply IS who we are.

A second step is for all of us to understand education is an investment, not an expense. The future is only as bright as the children who inherit it and we can’t give them what they need without a serious commitment of time and resources. Those resources include high-quality teachers and support staff, a full curriculum, and well-fed “butts in seats”. The GOP’s Project 2025 may call Federal school meals an entitlement program inferring it a bad thing, but students focus better when they are fed and we should care more about them being fed than about who does the feeding. We also need them to attend school. As the New York Times reported, “an estimated 26% of students were considered chronically absent (missing around 18 days) in 2023. Increased discipline problems are intertwined with absenteeism and both are holding back progress in our schools.

In a 2017 New York Times magazine article titled “Have We Lost Sight of the Promise of Public Education?” Author Nikole Hannah-Jones discusses how American public institutions and systems have long struggled with the ideal of serving the common good against the strong influence of the private market economy. She wrote, “If there is hope for a renewal of our belief in public institutions and the common good, it may reside in public schools”. I believe it does reside in our public schools, but only if we fight for them. It’s just sad that in the seven years since her article, the forces fighting back seem stronger, or at least more determined, than ever. Are we?