UnKoch Responds to State of the Union Address
In last night’s State of the Union, President Trump made clear his position on public education: school choice for some is more important than providing quality public education for all. Trump called for tax breaks for folks who donate money to nonprofit groups that provide scholarships to private schools. Instead of providing ways to reinvigorate the public schools that 90% of children across the country attend, Trump has decided to focus on a failing and harmful option: school choice.
This comes as no surprise to us. Since he’s been in office, and with each federal budget proposed, Trump has asked that funds be cut when it comes to public education, teacher development, and after school funding, while spending on federal charter grants has increased over 30%.
The trouble is we know that overall, charter schools (which are an integral part of Trump’s school choice) are failing children. Particularly kids who are most at risk of falling behind when it comes to education: those living in poverty, as well as Black and Latinx students. A recent report from the Network for Public Education looked at the results of taxpayer-funded grants from the U.S. Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program from 2006 to 2014. It found 1,779 grantee schools that either never opened or have since shut down—a failure rate of 37% (at a waste of over half a billion dollars!).
When these charter schools abruptly close, they leave both students and faculty scrambling for new education and job opportunities. Disrupting learning like this can have an immediate and lasting impact on younger students eager for routine and older ones in the midst of college applications. Instead of taking federal funds and infusing them into public schools to make them more equitable and successful for every student, charter schools drain badly needed resources from the majority of children in the country. In addition, charter schools lack transparency and accountability, allowing them to pass over accepting students with academic needs like special education requirements or modifications, hire unqualified staff, and more. Our democracy is harmed as students are being taught curriculum that promotes oppressive ideologies that contribute to cultural violence and justify structural violence against students of color and people of color.
Join our UnKoch K-12 Campaign to Protect Your School from the Koch Network!
Trump may be signing the policies that defund public education while giving our tax dollars to charter schools, but the Koch network is behind the false "crisis of education" narrative that helps empower Trump to make such harmful decisions. Charles Koch and his political donor network have been working for over a decade to cut federal funding for public services, including education. The Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council has been writing model bills alongside charter schools representatives for years, designing, word-for-word, the school privatization legislation we are seeing introduced in every state in the nation. Under Trump’s administration, it has just been easier than ever to have their harmful agendas realized.
Our parents are angry. Our children are frustrated. But the lack of a healthy, generative public-school ecosystem is not caused by bad teachers, poor leadership from school superintendents, or the mismanagement of county funds. Students are losing access to quality education because the funds required to properly support them simply do not exist. The Koch network's decades-long attack on taxes have resulted in classrooms that are under-resourced and teachers who are under-paid. The challenges felt within our public school system is a result of an intentionally-created crisis by wealthy, dark-money donors-- but the veil is being lifted.
Betsy DeVos praised Trump’s words, calling them a “bold agenda” in a statement released after the State of the Union. The only thing bold about their plan is that they are still holding so tightly to it. The growth of the #RedforEd movement across the nation demonstrates that mamas, teachers, and students themselves are done with being scapegoated for a crisis caused by the wealthy elite. Grassroots power will win over the Koch network’s privatization agenda. Don’t believe us? Go stand between a parent and their kid’s future.
Join our UnKoch K-12 Campaign to Protect Your School from the Koch Network!