by Dan Burns

Jan 12, 2026, 5:30 PM

Trump’s grand vision for schools

From last week:

Linda McMahon, the nation’s secretary of education, says public schools are failing.

In November, she promised a “hard reset” of the system in which more than 80% of U.S. children learn. But rather than invest in public education, she has been working to dismantle the Department of Education and enact wholesale changes to how public schools operate…

“Our final mission as a department is to fully empower states to carry the torch of our educational renaissance,” she said at a November press conference.

To help her carry out these and other goals, McMahon has brought at least 20 advisers from ultraconservative think tanks and advocacy groups who share her skepticism of the value of public education and seek deep changes, including instilling Christian values into public schools.
(ProPublica)

This is hardly new and shocking. Reactionary administrations have always pimped “remaking” public education. The question is, does this administration have any chance at all of succeeding?

First, note the Trumpers’ astonishing levels of incompetence and stupidity, and the fact that even in red state rural areas people love their own public schools. And Trump’s worsening standing overall. McMahon’s grandstanding is really more pandering to right-wing evangelicals than anything else. But while their grand plan is unlikely to get far,the question of how much damage they actually can do, in practical terms, is much more complicated.

Trying to push more kids into religious schools is unlikely to have wide appeal in an increasingly non-religious or only casually religious society. And certainly the corporations that really run this country (along with the military), and who need intelligent, educated personnel, aren’t about to stand idly by while the likes of the Trumpers try to “dumb down” a generation of American kids.

Unfortunately, the number of students in our charter-industrial complex has continued to rise, while enrollment in public schools has declined and in traditional private (including religious) schools has stayed flat. It’s that last point that has right-wing evangelicals pushing for a massive federal effort in their direction. They believe the public school system is vulnerable after decades of relentless bashing in media and elsewhere.

Actual education has never interested the semiliterate and barely numerate Trump. In fact it probably intimidates him, which he automatically deflects, as usual, with gross, blustering gibberish. His own rudimentary mental functioning works like this. Any belief that seems to support his view of himself as a supreme god among men is automatically completely and entirely true, and any belief that doesn’t reinforce that is completely and entirely false. Since all legitimate facts and reasoning belong in the latter category….you get the point.

I’m not even going to speculate on what might happen with the federal voucher program, which doesn’t kick in until 2027. I will note that vouchers are typically used by families with kids already in private school, and that kids don’t benefit – indeed, often the opposite – because of them.

On the whole, I don’t have an answer for how much damage they could do. If the issue becomes an obsession for Trump, maybe quite a lot. Hopefully that won’t happen.

Comment from Joe Musich: “They believe the public school system is vulnerable after decades of relentless bashing in media and elsewhere.” Charter schools get a lot of money from the big local foundations at the expense of public schools, what is able to be offered there, and the learning potential of those who remain. Turnover on average is higher in the charters and the mandates for special ed are not necessarily dealt with or are worked around. The kook factor also is more connected to charters, although I am sure many in the charters would like to see that coco group disappear. The problem is they are not likely to go away unless state law is amended.