President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

Our country now needs to take its cues from Hungary. Trump certainly has.

MSN

 

Got any video? Asking for a friend.

 

Just win, baby?

Column: Trump lied incessantly and still won. Should others do the same?

 

PERIOD!!!!

 

Everybody should have known such stupidity was possible. I imagine quite a few did. This is exactly the kind of shit that is going to keep happening as voucher programs expand. It's not about helping disadvantaged kids. It's about stealing money from public education to feed it to churches and private businesses.

 

Look for cutting horse to make the 2026 Olympics. There's already one in the Governor's Mansion in Little Rock.

 

[I pulled a Trump/Simpsons meme. Maybe too tasteless, even for Fucko
the Klown. ... And, besides, the execution squads will be banging on doors soon.]

 

Trump doesn't like to hear about anything being tiny, if we are to believe Stormy Daniels.

 

Figured I'd share this here, too. I was thinking about what Trump is trying to do to education in this country and I got on a roll.

In general, public school systems nationwide need intelligent reform. Unfortunately, there is no chance that will happen under Trump. His policies will do significant damage. I do wonder how much of it is coming from Linda McMahon, one of his big donors and a part of his previous cabinet as well. The actual stated goals are not good. Pushing prayer in schools will create further divisions among students, which will make academic achievement more difficult. The elimination or downsizing of the Department of Education will take away not only enforcement of Title IX, but more importantly, oversight for services for students with special needs. That is already a huge problem and now it will only get worse. This will also remove the apparatus for compiling national data, making it harder for state administrations to learn from one another and properly evaluate their efforts.

I will separate out voucher programs because they could do the most damage of all. Let's say Trump gets what he says he wants, universal choice for all students. Of course, he has offered no play to pay for it, but I doubt that will stop him. Of course, it will be the students who need the help the least who benefit most. There will be room for corrupt crap like those students using their vouchers for horse riding lessons, but that's just part of the problem. Students who are better off have been more likely to take advantage of vouchers, either getting into top prep schools or religious institutions. They will siphon significant funding away from public schools. It's not just the tuition. It is the transportation. When one public district near me in New York ran itself into the ground so badly that the state had to take over, one of their biggest budgetary issues was transportation. Students were going to more locations, many of them farther away, stretching already overburdened transportation systems even further at a higher cost. That money has to come from somewhere, so other services are taken away. School districts have less to spend on technology and other necessary materials. Extracurricular programs such as athletics and arts are cut. The quality and stability of staff are greatly reduced because poorer districts no longer have the money to keep their best teachers and administrators. Universal vouchers also put a huge burden on state budgets. We've seen that example in Arizona.

Another thing we learned from Arizona's example is that the poorest families did not take advantage of the voucher programs nearly as much as wealthier ones. That surprised me at first, but the reasons make sense. Some programs only cover tuition and the top private schools are too far away. There are also other expenses such as school uniforms and donations that families are pressured to make. Sometimes, families that were struggling simply didn't know their options. Also, there are large parts of student populations who do not have involved and supportive parents or guardians. These are the students who need the most help, the ones who are least likely to succeed without it, and there is no one to advocate for them to get the vouchers, so they are left behind in public schools. Voucher programs will severely weaken those public schools.

The other factor that is often ignored is one I touched on above, the divisions among students. Pushing more students into private schools creates a new sort of segregation. Some religious groups, such as Orthodox Jews, will further isolate themselves from the rest of their communities. Other groups will be left behind. Again, I've seen it happen in a local district here. It will happen elsewhere. Throw in the way school prayer creates divisions among children in those schools and it will become more and more difficult for children to make connections with people of different races, religions, and ethnic backgrounds. Put aside for a moment the truth that communities are stronger when those groups are able to connect and work together. This also makes things more difficult for our children. Those lessons they learn in school about working with diverse groups of people are invaluable. I doubt Trump cares about that, but I think there are people in his circles who want those divisions. They want that segregation and they don't give a damn how damaging it is to our children.

I know I'm on a little shakier ground with that last part, but I think it is valid. I didn't even dig that much into the anti-diversity approach Trump wants to take, the one he is tasking McMahon to implement. Like Betsy DeVos, Trump has again handed the Department of Education to one of his biggest donors as a play toy. I imagine Trump's focus on dismantling programs fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion are McMahon's influence. Like DeVos, McMahon isn't really qualified for the job, but neither Trump nor McMahon seem to care about doing the DOE's actual job. She's there to push an ugly agenda that will make things worse and she might be a competent enough executive to pull some of it off.

 

I've done well to limit my exposure to the constant Trump churn, watching far less news, reading far less (and reading more for pleasure), more music, and will have a second concert in two months soon.

Today, though, while I'm happy to play golf with my dad later, he's a politics junkie and hates Trump. Which, great. But I'm going to have to tell him, "not yet, too soon" for me and shut that down. I don't want it to ruin a perfect fall Sunday.