The American Assault on Education
By James Donahue
May 1, 2017
Donald Trump’s new plan to strip federal funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in his “America First” budget proposal is just the latest attack on education in the United States. If this plan gains Congressional approval it will rip the IMLS literacy and technology programs for 123,000 libraries and about 35,000 museums throughout the nation. It also will stop the IMLS grant program to states that feeds our nation’s intricate library system.
Shutting down libraries may not seem like a very serious issue during this time of massive electronic communication. People appear to be getting away from reading and spending their time “texting” each other on those little hand-held computers that do everything from taking photographs to mapping out directions while on the road. But book reading has not gone away. The new rage is “e-books” or the complete text of published books that can be purchased or just “borrowed” on line for a few dollars.
As a former news reporter, copy editor and published author of a few historical books I have been keenly aware of a growing inability by young Americans to spell, use correct grammar and pick the correct sentence structure when texting on Facebook and other social Internet sites. The words “to” and “two” usually always appear as “2” in contemporary text. I have seen entire sentences posted as a line of single letters and numbers that have to be carefully sounded out before any sense could be made of them. In short, people are no longer worrying about their spelling and writing skills.
That Mr. Trump successfully appointed businesswoman Betsy DeVos as his Secretary of Education has set up the potential destruction of an already faltering public education system. The schools have been slashing important instructional classes in geography, history, art, shop and cursive writing because of extreme cuts in state and federal aid and a growing unwillingness of property owners to vote badly needed educational millage. Now DeVos and her associates are moving to switch to a school voucher system which will allow parents to send their children to private or parochial schools rather than public schools. The concept of free public education is thus severely threatened. The public dollars from federal coffers thus will be used to subsidize whatever “choice” parents make for their children.
One of the first moves by DeVos since taking office has even more severe underpinnings. She has eliminated a program launched by former President Barack Obama that made it easier for students to avoid defaulting on their student loans. The student loan debt in the U.S. has risen to $1.5 trillion and defaults among debtors are now estimated at over 40 percent. College graduates accepted student loans, sometimes reaching tens of thousands of dollars, just to get degrees for possible jobs that often are not available. Thus many college grads are barely eking a living, unable to pay off that student loan, while the interest on college debt keeps growing.
A bill that moved through the House and Senate a few years ago made it impossible for student loan debt to be escaped through bankruptcy court. Thus the debt continues to grow, hanging over the heads of the graduates sometimes for the rest of their lives. And while they have this debt, the student’s credit rating is destroyed, making it impossible to purchase homes, cars or home appliances. This problem is having a terrible impact on the nation’s economy. It is estimated that the student loan crisis is already affecting about 40 million people and getting worse each passing year.
There appears to be a conspiracy linked to this particular debt crisis. Finance predators seem to have been given extra power to collect student debt. They are harassing debtors regularly by telephone calls. In Texas people who have failed to pay on student loans have had swat teams smash down their doors and been arrested for failing to pay.
If a parent or grandparent co-signed on the loan, they are finding themselves in the same terrible situation. They too are saddled with a loan that they cannot pay, that is destroying their credit, and threatens to follow them to the grave.
As long as this situation exists, students from middle class and poor families are resisting college. That means some of the brightest minds are being left behind because they cannot get the education they need to contribute to society. The leadership is being left to only the children of the rich and powerful. And these children are not necessarily the brightest.
By James Donahue
May 1, 2017
Donald Trump’s new plan to strip federal funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in his “America First” budget proposal is just the latest attack on education in the United States. If this plan gains Congressional approval it will rip the IMLS literacy and technology programs for 123,000 libraries and about 35,000 museums throughout the nation. It also will stop the IMLS grant program to states that feeds our nation’s intricate library system.
Shutting down libraries may not seem like a very serious issue during this time of massive electronic communication. People appear to be getting away from reading and spending their time “texting” each other on those little hand-held computers that do everything from taking photographs to mapping out directions while on the road. But book reading has not gone away. The new rage is “e-books” or the complete text of published books that can be purchased or just “borrowed” on line for a few dollars.
As a former news reporter, copy editor and published author of a few historical books I have been keenly aware of a growing inability by young Americans to spell, use correct grammar and pick the correct sentence structure when texting on Facebook and other social Internet sites. The words “to” and “two” usually always appear as “2” in contemporary text. I have seen entire sentences posted as a line of single letters and numbers that have to be carefully sounded out before any sense could be made of them. In short, people are no longer worrying about their spelling and writing skills.
That Mr. Trump successfully appointed businesswoman Betsy DeVos as his Secretary of Education has set up the potential destruction of an already faltering public education system. The schools have been slashing important instructional classes in geography, history, art, shop and cursive writing because of extreme cuts in state and federal aid and a growing unwillingness of property owners to vote badly needed educational millage. Now DeVos and her associates are moving to switch to a school voucher system which will allow parents to send their children to private or parochial schools rather than public schools. The concept of free public education is thus severely threatened. The public dollars from federal coffers thus will be used to subsidize whatever “choice” parents make for their children.
One of the first moves by DeVos since taking office has even more severe underpinnings. She has eliminated a program launched by former President Barack Obama that made it easier for students to avoid defaulting on their student loans. The student loan debt in the U.S. has risen to $1.5 trillion and defaults among debtors are now estimated at over 40 percent. College graduates accepted student loans, sometimes reaching tens of thousands of dollars, just to get degrees for possible jobs that often are not available. Thus many college grads are barely eking a living, unable to pay off that student loan, while the interest on college debt keeps growing.
A bill that moved through the House and Senate a few years ago made it impossible for student loan debt to be escaped through bankruptcy court. Thus the debt continues to grow, hanging over the heads of the graduates sometimes for the rest of their lives. And while they have this debt, the student’s credit rating is destroyed, making it impossible to purchase homes, cars or home appliances. This problem is having a terrible impact on the nation’s economy. It is estimated that the student loan crisis is already affecting about 40 million people and getting worse each passing year.
There appears to be a conspiracy linked to this particular debt crisis. Finance predators seem to have been given extra power to collect student debt. They are harassing debtors regularly by telephone calls. In Texas people who have failed to pay on student loans have had swat teams smash down their doors and been arrested for failing to pay.
If a parent or grandparent co-signed on the loan, they are finding themselves in the same terrible situation. They too are saddled with a loan that they cannot pay, that is destroying their credit, and threatens to follow them to the grave.
As long as this situation exists, students from middle class and poor families are resisting college. That means some of the brightest minds are being left behind because they cannot get the education they need to contribute to society. The leadership is being left to only the children of the rich and powerful. And these children are not necessarily the brightest.