Trump: " an education system flush with cash which leaves our students deprived of all knowledge"

The small part of President Trump's inauagrial address that referred to public education hit a new low even for Trump. As a retired educator who researches the facts about public education, I am shocked and appalled that the new president could be so inaccurate and insulting to educators who always give their very best to their students. Not all, but most children in our public schools receive an excellent education and their education is quite superior to what students got in the 50's for example. (This is the time period most observers believes Trump compares the present to when he talks about making America great again) I taught as far back as the 60's and I can assure Trump that even though my colleagues and I did a good job, it was still not as good as teachers are doing today. The students we educated went to the moon, created advanced computers, the internet, and even the technology that will help us conquer global warming.

To indeit all public schools as failures because a small portion of our schools are facing extreme challenges because of poverty and neglect in our society, is nothing short of slanderous.

Trump's new education secretary believes that the problems of our schools can be solved by implementing  minimal accountability privatization schemes. The problem with that approach is that we already have ample evidence that school privatization is wasteful of our tax dollars and does not produce as good results as our real public schools. See this most recent study of the charter schools in New Orleans that revealed that such schools spend more on administration and less on the classroom. My most recent analysis shows the RSD schools in New Orleans rating at the 18th percentile compared to all other districts in the state.

My impression is that Trump knows almost nothing about public education in this country. Unfortunately this has not stopped him from making outrageously incorrect statements that are designed to tear down this necessary very critical part of our country's infrastructure.

Educators and parents who believe in our public education system will need to be prepared to defend education from the destructive Trump agenda.