Category Archives: Donald Trump

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Yes, This is Bad

Dismantling the Department of Education will have devastating impacts

Gov. Bill Lee yesterday celebrated Donald Trump’s “executive order” to dismantle and effectively end the U.S. Department of Education.

Unsurprisingly, the same Governor who relentlessly pushed to destroy public education in Tennessee through a costly and ineffective school voucher scheme also supports this latest very bad idea.

Here’s a bit of what I wrote about it over at The Education Report:

In short: This will be bad. All of it. The end of the Department of Education. The end of public school. The advent of “free market, choose your own adventure” education.

The end result: an exacerbation of income-based inequality. Or, the dream scenario of Project 2025.

Gov. Bill Lee promoting school privatization

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TN to Lose Millions in Musk Attack on USDA

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On the Harms of Dismantling the Dept. of Education

TN pastors speak out

While President Trump and his unelected advisor Elon Musk work diligently to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, some pastors in Tennessee on speaking out. The Southern Christian Coalition says the Musk-Trump dismantling will harm Tennessee students and schools.

Pastor Joy Warren, a Cumberland Presbyterian Minister in Murfreesboro, said:

“I know it’s getting exhausting to keep up with all the ways that President Trump and his administration are trying to harm our communities. But I know without a doubt we absolutely must continue speaking up for those under attack in our communities, including children! The firing of half of the Department of Education is just another way to take resources from our children in order to give tax breaks to his billionaire friends.”

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Elon Musk Eliminates Program that Provides Local Food to Schools, Food Banks

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Republicans Confused Over Dept. of Ed

They love to rail against but also appreciate the federal dollars flowing to their states

Even as President Trump moves forward with plans to weaken and, ultimately, dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, Republicans appear conflicted.

NPR notes that at a recent hearing, the conversation turned to explaining the key functions of the DoE:

The Department of Education has two main jobs, in addition to managing the federal student loan system: It protects students’ civil rights and sends money to schools that need it most. But, just as the department doesn’t control classrooms, it doesn’t control budgets either.

Schools tend to receive about 10% of their total budget from the federal government. The rest comes from state and local sources. Yes, that 10% makes a huge difference – schools don’t just have tons of money lying around. And, yes, if the Department shuts down, how that money is spent or allocated could change – or, there could be less overall allocation if left to the states or integrated into state funding formulas.

So, Republican lawmakers face a conundrum – join their party’s leader in bashing and trashing the Department OR stand up for the DoE and the funds and protections it brings to schools in their states.

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Trump, Schools, and Theocracy

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Bill Lee Rejects Food Assistance for TN Kids

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Is It Really Bad?

Yes!

It is, in fact, bad.

All of it, when it comes to Team Trump, Elon, and the oligarchs.

But also: The Department of Education stuff.

I mean, Joe Biden appointed a former classroom teacher to head the Ed Department.

Trump is suggesting a pro wrestling executive.

But, what does it all mean? What will happen if the Department of Education is disbanded or broken down to a much smaller entity?

Well:

Roughly 7.5 million students, or 15 percent of the student population, receive special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which provides $15 billion to support students with disabilities. This program could be transferred to another agency, making it significantly less likely that students with disabilities receive the services and support they need and deserve.

And that’s just one example.

Funding, support, and resources will be lost – and protections for vulnerable student populations will be uneven at best.

Meanwhile, Elon and the Oligarchs will pillage the department to boost their own bottom lines.

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Arizona Plans to Scale Back Runaway Voucher Scheme

TN’s School Funding Failures

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Trumping the Department of Education

Elon and the Oligarchs seek takedown of U.S. Ed Dept.

Well, it seems Elon and his merry band of oligarch enablers are raiding the Department of Education.

A recent story in the Wall Street Journal details the Administration’s current thinking on the subject:

Trump administration officials are weighing executive actions to dismantle the Education Department as part of the campaign by billionaire Elon Musk and his allies to shrink federal agencies and slash the size of the government workforce.

Not great. Couple this with Tennessee’s recent passage of Bill Lee’s school voucher scam and you have wholesale destruction of education as we know it.

You know what TN hasn’t known when it comes to education? You know what kind of disruption we haven’t experienced?

Generous funding, support, and resources for all schools, students, and teachers.

Now, it seems at both the federal and state levels, the funding model will shift – leaving public schools grasping for crumbs while private operators profit.

Gross.

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In Kentucky, a Demand for School Funding

A School Without Teachers

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State Revenue Shortfall Follows Corporate Tax Breaks

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Toward Trump’s Theocracy

The President uses education policy to advance a chilling agenda

Peter Greene takes a look at President Trump’s early executive orders on education and finds that they may be a part of a larger push toward theocracy:

In the end, this eo really only settles one thing– would Trump throw his weight behind the Libertarian dream of smaller government, or behind the theocrat’s dream of a nation forced to follow their preferred values. In education, it looks like the theocrats win this round.

America loses. No matter how imperfectly, this eo will drop a chilling blanket over schools and empower some awful people to be extra awful in their local district. In states that already have installed repressive China-style cultural revolutions, the impact will be minimal. But in other states, this, like the bill to implement school vouchers everywhere, means that state rights be damned–they get the policies they never asked for.

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In Kentucky, a Demand for School Funding

TN School Districts Focus on Book Banning

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SNAP Fails TN Families

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Rejecting Trump

Teachers offer strong resistance to Trump education agenda

Response to Donald Trump’s nomination of Linda McMahon to lead the Department of Education has been swift. And mixed. Why there isn’t more fierce resistance is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps education groups are afraid of her powerful wrestling moves (she was once CEO of WWE). Or, maybe some groups want to still be in line to receive DOE grants.

In any case, the National Education Association was clear in their opposition to McMahon and to their plans for open resistance:

“Parents and educators will stand together to support students and reject the harmful, outlandish, and insulting policies being pushed by the Trump administration. They will make their voices heard, just as they did by resoundingly defeating vouchers in states like Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska.  

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Senate Democrats Select 2025 Leaders

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Insulting

Trump’s pick to head Dept. of Ed is former CEO of wrestling business

Gov. Bill Lee was quick to indicate his support for Donald Trump’s selection of Linda McMahon to head the U.S. Department of Education.

This is not exactly surprising. Despite Trump calling Lee a “RINO,” Lee trips all over himself to curry favor with Trump.

Plus, Lee and Trump (and McMahon) have the same goal: Privatizing public schools by way of voucher schemes.

Peter Greene notes of McMahon:

Unlike former secretary Betsy DeVos or some of the contenders like Tiffany Justice and Erika Donalds, McMahon has not spent most of her adult life trying to devise and implement ways to dismantle and privatize public education. (And at age 76,  she is a decade older than DeVos–one more aging boomer in this administration). I’m not saying that won’t be part of her policy objectives. It’s just that she won’t enter office with a whole suitcase of explosives already packed.

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Andy Beshear for President?

What’s Going on with Kevin Huffman?

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Fighting to End the Grocery Tax

Democrats Speak Out on Lee’s Voucher Scam

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Bill Lee Backs Bad Ideas

He wants the cash without the accountability

It’s not really surprising that Bill Lee is supporting incoming President Donald Trump’s bad ideas. That said, the impact on students in Tennessee schools could be devastating.

To be clear: The leader of a state that earns an “F” grade in investment in students, is near the bottom in the nation (and the Southeast) for teacher compensation, and consistently fails its most vulnerable students wants to remove all guardrails and just be trusted to “do what’s best?”

While it is not yet clear if Trump will actually dissolve the Department of Education, powering the agency down as he’s suggested could remove key protections for students with disabilities. It could also drastically alter how funding for low-income students is distributed.

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Will 2025 be The Year of the Voucher in Tennessee?

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