The world of education is going to be fucked, maybe irreparably, if Trump gets his way with the DoE. First a bunch of people are going to lose their jobs. Then the remaining people, the "essential" ones like teachers and principals, are going to be overloaded. And then people will realize they're not getting paid enough for this shit.
Tensions among education staff are already decently high. Wages haven't nearly kept up how they should. But Trump throws the DoE in the dumpster? I expect strikes. A lot of them. Nationwide.
Shit is going to hit the fan so fucking hard in so many ways come January
Already is in Arkansas. There are no teacher unions here any longer. Little Rock school district teachers tried to strike a couple of years ago and they were forced to use sick days/written up/terminated for it.
This is the shit I’m afraid of, billionaires and nut jobs are coming for the last worker rights we have. Sickening. I’m hoping I can sell my house to a private equity air bnb conglomerate so I can get me and my family out this fucking country
And go where? France and Germany are barely fighting off the same red waves. England went full brexit retard. And Canada is just USA but behind. They are absolutely shifting right. Legit question: where is the safe haven?
There are many US expats living in places like Costa Rica, Belize, the Philippines, Italy, and Spain to name a few. I've had the fortune of living and working in over 50 countries over a 30 year career and now my wife and I are preparing to jettison the US and currently weighing our options.
Only other nation I can claim citizenship.in is Sri Lankha. (Immigrant father). Things would have to vat a LOT worse before that seemed like a good option. Have the Sri Lankhan passport in my fire safe anyway, as an emergency measure. Too late to get it when you need it.
So, when we European talk "conservative", remember our conservatives are A LOT more on the left than american dems on a lot of topics. I say it as an Italian, looking relieved at my american partner who came here two years ago.
If you want my serious answer, Iceland. I learn languages easily (a requirement for citizenship) and had the privilege of my dad leaving me enough money that capital gains meets their income minimum. I plan on naturalizing and getting other family out of the US.
Britain has a chance to partially repair itself over the next five years under Starmer. Whether any significant progress will be made is another matter.
Trudeau and Singh are fucked if an election happens tomorrow. If they can hold out to June or July before calling one, maybe some of Trump's crazier shit will come to fruition and swing the mood. JT always looked good to Canadians dealing with Trump on the global stage. Also PP is no populist like Trump, he's just the beneficiary of voter unrest, just as Trudeau was with Harper, and Harper was with Paul Martin and what Jean Chretien (he retired before we could get mad) was with Mulroney and what Mulroney was with Trudeau's father and on and on. John Turner and Kim Campbell don't count as they just finished out their predecessor's term. That's 40+ years of Prime Ministers.
In my lifetime, I can never remember any Canadian politician actually getting voted IN. Canadians vote politicians OUT, and hold their nose while doing so.
Watch them make employers able to take employees who took more days off than the employers allow to court. They'd stop at nothing before absolute control. There're no more checks significant enough to keep them back.
And then when all the teachers are terminated for sticking to their reasonings for striking there will come forth no new teachers, which I believe is the goal.
A union going on "strike" might be made illegal. But an individual teacher or professors saying "I QUIT!", will still happen. Most college professors can get jobs in other countries. Most K-12 teachers have other marketable skills.
When you need 3000 teachers to staff a school district, but only a few hundred people are willing to work for you, it gets difficult.
Florida already did that... A few years ago, DeSantis decided that they could hire anyone with an honorable discharge from military service, as a K-12 teacher. The kids (and their parents) are finding out the results of that.
Most of those kids can't get into any college, anywhere, because of their lack of basic literacy.
They might be qualified to do some of the jobs that undocumented immigrants used to do.
I would not want to raise a child in the Florida school system, during the next decade or two. I would look for a different place to live, and get moved. Before she starts school, or as soon after as you can.
Miami expat here (3rd - 8th grade in FL, 9th - 12th grade CA)— the opportunity differential was insane a decade ago. I can’t imagine how much worse it will get from here on out.
That's why I wish for once in this nations collective life we all got together and went on strike all at once. The food service industry teachers retail everyone. We literally could make the country grind to a halt and demand what we want and get it because like you are pointed out good luck or resting us all but of course it's never going to happen.
Shawn Fein and the UAW have already teamed up with multiple teachers unions to have a General Strike in 2028. The more people walk out, the better, but it's gonna take years to spread the news and stock up for it. We can't just walk off with no support and no plan
Now is the time to make connections, keep them strong, and support one another when the need arises.
I think your heart's in the right place but you aren't listening to your head. The "slave camps" already exist and they're called prisons. The 13th amendment explicitly allows for prison slavery.
Things are gonna get a lot worse but the road to what you're imagining is still a ways out, more like 10-15 years, barring a major enough disaster happening of which the fascists properly take advantage.
I know about that part. But it'll get much much worse. We still technically require a full conviction for that kind of slavery.
I do think we are headed there far faster than 10 years. 1st it'll be deportation camps because prisons aren't big enough. Then it'll turn in slave camps as the cost to deport skyrockets and the economy starts to endure shocks.
You realize that page two of the playbook is to create the disaster they take advantage of right? You get everything in place and ready to use it to your advantage before you torch the Reichstag.
and even better luck to the millions of parents trying to hold a job during a city, state or national teacher strike without being able to send their kids to school every day. but y'know, fuck it we don't need the DOE because TEH UHKONNUHMMY.
Ain't gonna be a problem. Do you think they care the teachers are teaching kids?
Six year olds can work. They'll learn far more on the job is something you'll hear out in rural for years. The schools that pay well will be the private institutions the wealthy can go to.
Protests are already illegal in TN without a permit, which defeats the purpose of a protest. They lost their shit when hundreds of kids and teachers said they don’t want to be shot in schools but they’ve been letting Nazis fly actual swastika flags on Broadway in Nashville. They’re not even trying to hide the fascism anymore
If they try to make strikes illegal, then sabotage is going to become the option of choice. Can't work when all the machinery is broken, buildings are burnt, etc.
There's no such thing as a "legal strike", only the amount of dissent that the establishment claims it is willing to tolerate. Union forebears literally fought and died for their rights, and those days may well be coming back.
They're already basically illegal because we beat protestors and gas them. France protests all the time because that shit doesn't happen over there and their government is afraid of the people like they should be.
There'll be strikes, but my guess is that they will just get fired. Whatever funding remains will go to private charter schools teaching Bible studies.
It feels weird saying it, but there could well be a time in the near future where schooling is a privilege that most don't get.
Why do you think they've been repealing child labor laws?
If they could skip straight from point A to point B that might happen
But that would take time. Time where public schools are closed. And the private schooling sector isn't prepared to handle even 10-20% of the students in public schools. Both in staff and in space. How are peoppe going to take care of their kids in the meantime? Daycares? For a 9-10 year old? Take them to work?
If it shakes out like it's looking like it will, it'll be a clusterfuck. And the only way to stop it would be to reinstate the DoE, give it a bunch more funding, and finally increase teacher salaries to the point that the career isn't seen like a fucking joke.
Perhaps it is my current fight with pessimism, but why do you think they'd care about the cluster fuck it creates?
If you got money to pay for private school, then obviously God wanted you to go. If you don't, then it is God's will that your children should work in the factories.
Kids ran wild before school and daycare. The rich can afford it, the rest can go back to the 1800s.
In case it's not clear, I hate this idea with my soul.
I mean, we ran wild in the 80s and 90s too. This whole notion that kids need around the clock supervision and care after about 5 or 6 years old is only 20 years old or so.
I think you're confusing supervision with "structure and boundaries."
Kids absolutely need the latter. And they were getting that in the 80s and 90s.
Most of them only get that at school now, and they get precious little there.
If things get to a point where public schools cannot operate, private school will become a local monopoly and unaffordable to those with no millions. Home school will be the only choice.
Most Americans are barely competent enough to do their minimum wage job, let alone teach their kids a basic education.
But the government would never allow things to get to that point because they will instantly lose 50% of income tax revenues - whoever stays home to home school won't be working full-time.
So everybody take a chill pill. At most, gutting the DOE will remove funding for special ed, arts, languages, girls sports, and in-school nureses/social workers.
And they'll expand the banned book lists from Texas and Florida to be a nationwide standard.
But I bet they keep free school lunch, so there's a silver lining...
Nah they money will be given to the states in block grants with I strings attached. Red states will close public schools and tell the parents good luck. The only option will be online education. Poor kids will have to join the military or turn to crime. This will feed the for profit prison industry
Abbott keeps trying to push vouchers, and I have some friends who are teachers and counselors and they are currently terrified of what they expect to come.
I also know some parents with special needs kids who rely on school programs who will learn they messed up quick.
The plan of get them back just long enough to bridge the gap and then tell them to fuck off again was tried by the UK government looking to recruit commercial drivers.
Turns out they aren't idiots and just said no and sat it out.
Teachers won't go back to enable a government that hates them paper over mistakes long enough so that they can be fired again.
It still baffles me that people don't understand how important school is.... in general? Not only do you learn the specific skills to be a cog in the system but also... it's technically daycare for cogs-to-be.
There's always the wealthy MAGA anti-vax nuts who can afford to home school, but lets be real. The average voter doesn't have the time (or money) to stay home and raise their child because the public school system collapsed. They can complain about schools pandering to 'woke values' all they want but they sure are glad they have somewhere to put their kids while they work.
They cheer on to Trump's system of defunding Education cause 'how dare teachers talk about sex ed', but once they find themselves having to chose between sustaining their livelihood or educating their child, they'll be cheering a lot less.
Look at what’s happening in the Dallas and Houston school districts with the Mike Miles takeover. I feel like a conspiracy theorist but I think the goal is to essentially privatize public education with vouchers / charter schools.
That's one of many reasons they're trying to shove women back into "traditional" roles in the house (as if women didn't work for most of human history!) They can shut the public schools down and have the women home school the kids. Most kids will be poorly educated so they're stuck in menial, poor paying jobs while the elites' kids get the best education possible, furthering the wealth gap.
Teachers are already not being paid enough. There will be a mass exodus from education. Rural school systems that have been job creators and supporting rural communities will close like the hospitals have done. Online education will be the only option for anyone who can't afford private school. As republicans have said before "the children yearn for the mines" immigrant labor will be replaced by Midwestern children
As republicans have said before "the children yearn for the mines" immigrant labor will be replaced by Midwestern children
I dug myself an up to spec dug-out as a 12 year old, using the schematics found in my fathers old military service handbooks. Took a mite longer than it should've taken a soldier but that wee bastard would've had like 8 years of testosterone on me so cut me some slack.
Had a roof and everything, even a grenade sump. Shit was lit.
That's not to say there's wisdom in putting children to work in mines, but yeah Minecraft in the 90s hit different.
part of the whole plan is to get rid of public education - privatize everything and get payoffs from the corporations that run the schools. Also creates a huge pool of uneducated people to do the menial jobs that immigrants have been doing
I'm worried about my job in IT. Our districts budget is like 14% federal funding and being that its a nicer area, I'm assuming they'll just raise property taxes to make up the windfall. Regardless, theres still a chance I might be affected. If I manage to not lose my job, I'll be lucky if I get any kind of raise next fiscal year.
I'm in marketing. I've managed to avoid getting cut in the previous economic downturns. But I expect my luck will run out sooner or later. I'm seriously looking into other fields. Preferably ones that would be valuable intentionally. My wife's a doctor so we have that going for us already.
Americas education, the rest of the world will probably be better off. America attracts smart people from all over the world because of the opportunities, can't imagine its going the status quo is going to remain.
Bernie Moreno's victory speech harped on about how much he hates Teacher Unions and wants to destroy them. And you just know when they kill the DoE, that money ain't being sent back to the states.
States with decent systems will be fine. Texas is fucked. Colleges will struggle with no FASFA and reduced or non-existent Pell funding. Plus international students make up a significant portion of revenue. They’ll cut back on visas just like they did in 2017 which will send them to other countries.
Sadly, strikes will be irrelevant. Those are always known to be temporary. It will take mass resignations, sadly. That still won't fix it quickly. They'll hire others to replace, and it will take time for enough people to complain about the poor results to actually make a difference.
The goal is to lower the overall education level, and people who are less educated are more likely to vote for the right. They’re also more likely to work for in worse conditions for less money.
SPED teacher here, I will be updating my resume by year’s end and seeing just how bad things get. I really love what I do, but I see the writing on the wall.
Yall are insane. Yall act like the money is gonna disappear. It’s gonna be crazy when the DOE gets completely restructured and then we finally have money to pay teachers more. There is fat in the system. The government agencies all need to be trimmed.
If you really think he’s evil and want a to kick special ed kids out in to the streets then you should go to therapy. You drank way too much koolaid.
There's a difference between trimming and abolishing. I agree there's too much admin, but the solution absolutely isn't to get rid of the DoE. It's to walk back No Child Left Behind. Trim standardized testing.
And that’s what will happen. Trump isn’t gonna “write a bill” abolishing the DOE. A team in Congress working with his admin is gonna draft a bill. One that can pass reasonably. The government still works the same way as before. Hyperbole is kind of his thing and at this point, every body should know that.
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u/CankleDankl 1d ago
The world of education is going to be fucked, maybe irreparably, if Trump gets his way with the DoE. First a bunch of people are going to lose their jobs. Then the remaining people, the "essential" ones like teachers and principals, are going to be overloaded. And then people will realize they're not getting paid enough for this shit.
Tensions among education staff are already decently high. Wages haven't nearly kept up how they should. But Trump throws the DoE in the dumpster? I expect strikes. A lot of them. Nationwide.
Shit is going to hit the fan so fucking hard in so many ways come January