A core part of that plan is to re-allocate $20 billion in federal funds as a block grant to the states for the sake of promoting school choice. At about $1,800 per child, the money would be far from enough for private school tuition. This includes private schools, traditional public schools, magnet schools and charter schools which must be included in any definition of school choice.
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Scrutiny on the low marks the school received threatened to complicate Trump’s pitch, as critics questioned his decision to visit this particular school before he even arrived in this critical battleground state.
Did the school expect any blow-back for hosting Trump? “Introducing school choice and challenging failed government monopolies is central to helping improve results and prepare our children for the rest of their lives”.
Trump’s plan stops short of requiring states to use the federal dollars to institute what many have referred to as a school voucher program or do away with teacher tenure, two positions strongly opposed by most Democrats.
The Republican nominee reviewed that the United States spends more than $620 billion on K-12 education annually at both the state and federal levels.
The school has a governing board, but is run by the for-profit company Accel Schools of Virginia.
Hillary Clinton has said she believes charter schools should supplement but not replace public schools by developing and discovering teaching methods that work.
The school got exposure.
“Mr. Trump cited school-choice programs around the country, but rightly said we need to do more”, he added.
Public schools are “our government-run monopoly” that has “trapped millions of African-American and Hispanic youth in failing government schools that deny them the opportunity to join the ladder of American success”, Trump said in a speech at the Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy on Thursday.
The school in the city’s east side in a predominantly African-American neighborhood with a predominantly African-American enrollment.
Chains of charter schools run by private companies like Akron-based White Hat Management and New York-based Mosaica Education, after posting year after year of low test scores, continued to close, often for financial and not academic reasons. He said he was “proposing a plan to provide school choice to every disadvantaged student in America”. Seated to Trump’s right was Debroah Mays, the head of the school.
But he has offered few details about how he would fix K-12 education, other than saying he wants to get rid of Common Core (which the president lacks the authority to do – academic standards are determined by states); scale back or possibly eliminate the U.S. Education Department; and expand school choice. Lawmakers tightened oversight a year ago with a new law that calls for more accountability and transparency, including from the for-profit companies that manage some schools.
The principal of the Cleveland Arts and Social Sciences Academy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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And, a state government effort is ongoing to audit the $108 million in state funding sent to ECOT, the largest online school in the state, to see whether the school inflated the hours students actually spent taking online courses. “Unregulated, unaccountable for-profit charter schools-like the one Trump is visiting today-have destabilized our public districts, defrauded taxpayers, and left our kids and educators worse off, not better”.
