While guzzling taxpayer dollars as he circled Air Force One over the Daytona 500, the President gave a shout out to Governor Brad Little:
To paraphrase: A New York felon who leads a shady gang of billionaires is gutting our national security, relief programs for hungry kids, and our expert federal workforce so they can pay themselves more money (“tax breaks” is the term of art). And, that New York felon loves seeing the same thing happening to Idaho!
To be clear, President Trump only cares about Idaho schools because he wants all states to follow his lead on gutting public education. His goal is to end public education altogether. Gut the department of education nationally – check! Now onto the states – check! Thanks, Brad Little.
Don’t let them fool you–it’s not alarmist to call this out. In fact, I’ve been warning for years that Brad Little and his puppeteers have been working on this.
It’s simple math. The GOP supermajority wants to give money to their wealthy cronies, who are affiliated with private, usually religious schools. (The bonus is that they buy the loyalty of parents this way too). They shift that money from public schools. It’s $50 million this time. Does anyone really think that’s a cap?
If you are interested, let me go a little more deeply into how the school voucher program works to hurt Idaho kids:
School vouchers drain funding from public schools, which rely heavily on local and state taxes. When students head for private options, the money follows them. This cuts money available to run, staff, and maintain the local public schools. These schools, particularly rural ones, already struggle with overcrowded classrooms, outdated facilities, and insufficient educational materials. So, the funding loss makes it even harder for public schools to offer high quality education. This fuels a cycle of disinvestment and declining standards. Oh, and say goodbye to things like sports, clubs, and after school programs. That’s where cuts come first.
School vouchers weaken the public education system. Public schools serve students from various socioeconomic backgrounds, races, and abilities, providing an equitable education regardless of a student’s circumstances. School vouchers starve this opportunity-creating system by shifting resources to private institutions that have lower accountability standards. Private schools do not adhere to the same, high standards of public schools, such as teacher certification, curriculum requirements, and access for students with disabilities. Lack of oversight decreases educational quality for private-school students, especially those with special needs or those from marginalized communities. Cuts to public schools makes it harder for them to serve a diverse student population as well.
Count on school vouchers to exacerbate inequality by benefiting wealthier families. That bears repeating: School vouchers help the wealthy while harming the poor.
Trump and today’s new brand of billionaire robber barons have captured our federal government and they love the all-GOP, all-the-time make up of Idaho’s state government.
Shifting money from the public schools to the private and religious schools favors the rich and hurts the poor and that’s why Trump likes it. Brad Little? Who knows. He’s not known for his courage, so it’s likely that he’s just scared to death of Idaho MAGA. And, he’s probably scared of the President. Or, maybe he really doesn’t care about Idaho kids.
It doesn’t really matter what drives our governor. What matters is that he is complicit, and acts enthusiastic, about a terrible terrible school voucher program that can only hurt kids and destroy our education system that has a long history of helping America find her “best and brightest” hidden among our poorest and most disadvantaged populations.