MTA leadership responds to Trump's proposed expansion of school vouchers
MTA leadership responds to Trump's proposed expansion of school vouchers
Massachusetts Teachers Association President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy issued the following statement in response to plans by the Trump Administration to expand school voucher programs:
President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders around public education vouchers are a con that will hurt students and families under the guise of “choice.” That’s why Republican voters overwhelmingly rejected voucher programs in Kentucky and Nebraska this past November. Trump and his cronies are willing to hurt the very people who voted for him and are committed to destroying perhaps the greatest institution this nation has produced – universal public education for everyone.
The Trump Administration is at the service of billionaires bent on protecting their wealth from taxation. It is shameful to see this country’s public education system under assault, especially as our students need – and deserve – greater investment in the staff and programs to nurture their academic, social and emotional growth.
Vouchers are the latest, and most lethal, effort in this quest to dismantle public education.
Vouchers are the latest, and most lethal, effort in this quest to dismantle public education.
Allowing public dollars to fund private schools that do not welcome all families and students, as public schools do, should not be able to harm the quality of the real public schools that educate all children. Likewise, undoing the workings of major grant programs that help financially disadvantaged students, and students with special education plans, would put our most vulnerable students at risk of not receiving the services they need.The conservative canard about letting “the money follow the student” is at the heart of a dangerous ideology that ignores that public schools are the most important institutions in a given community, built up over decades, in the firm commitment to educate all children. As students travel their academic journeys, their needs inevitably change and fluctuate, and a well-funded, well-staffed public school is best equipped to provide that breadth of resources. Schools are not shopping malls and students are not consumers in search of bargains; Trump’s corporate mentality fails to grasp the essence of what it means to support the public good.
School voucher programs and other schemes to privatize public education must be exposed for what they are – wealth-protection policies for the super-rich – and stopped.
Parents and caregivers are essential partners with educators. The MTA and the NEA are working with various civic organizations not only to protect our public schools but also to advance them by creating a robust network of community schools that turn our public schools into vital and vibrant neighborhood hubs that help our young people succeed both inside and outside of the classroom.
School voucher programs and other schemes to privatize public education must be exposed for what they are – wealth-protection policies for the super-rich – and stopped.