Tag: public education

Trump’s first full education budget: Deep cuts to public school programs in pursuit of school choice

Because a democracy needs an educated populance?  Our guess is yes.

The following article by my Emma Brown, Valerie Strauss and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel was posted on the Washington Post website May 17, 2017:

Funding for college work-study programs would be cut in half, public-service loan forgiveness would end and hundreds of millions of dollars that public schools could use for mental health, advanced coursework and other services would vanish under a Trump administration plan to cut $10.6 billion from federal education initiatives, according to budget documents obtained by The Washington Post. Continue reading “Trump’s first full education budget: Deep cuts to public school programs in pursuit of school choice”

It was a sad day for public education

The following column by Sen. Steve Cwodzinski was posted on the Eden Prairie News website April 19, 2017:

One of the saddest days of my teaching career was having to walk through the doors of Eden Prairie High School the day after the community defeated a referendum. The defeat told me that as a teacher, I wasn’t valued. That feeling permeated the classrooms of the school that week.

And, recently, that feeling has come back after seeing the lack of investments in the Senate education bill. While there were a lot of good items in the bill, such as language on suicide prevention and streamlining teacher licensure, I still chose to vote no.

Minnesota has historically valued public education — and the Legislature has put its money where its mouth is by making important investments that have helped our state achieve great things. Even our state constitution explicitly states that it is the duty of the Legislature to establish a general and uniform system of public education.

Continue reading “It was a sad day for public education”

The telling letter Betsy DeVos wrote to clarify her position on U.S. disabilities law

The following article by Valerie Strauss was posted on the Washington Post website January 28, 2017:

Betsy DeVos, the Michigan billionaire President Trump nominated to be education secretary, wrote a letter to a senator about the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. What she said in that letter is very telling about her education priorities.

DeVos wrote the letter to Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, after a Jan. 17 confirmation hearing in which DeVos revealed a lack of understanding of basic education issues, including IDEA. Continue reading “The telling letter Betsy DeVos wrote to clarify her position on U.S. disabilities law”