TRUMP, THE EDUCATION PRESIDENT?

TRUMP, THE EDUCATION PRESIDENT?

That is the proposition advanced by my friend Roger Simon at the Epoch Times. (Which, by the way, is well worth subscribing to.) Roger notes that Trump may take up residence in New Jersey, which would clear the way for a Trump-DeSantis ticket in 2024:

At least to some degree, Donald Trump must reinvent himself for the 2024 presidential election.

Of course Donald will always be Donald but something new is always advisable and one situation in our country is in such crisis, worse even than the border, that it is crying out for him to address it.

This situation is so alarming, in fact, that if it continues in the direction it is going we might as well elect Xi Jinping president and start brushing up our “social credit scores.” The USA is over.

And that is—as I am sure you know—education. From pre-K to Ph.D., the vast majority of our educational institutions have curricula that seem as if they were written by Trotsky between Politburo meetings.

It is true. The far left has captured both public education and elite private education across pretty much the entire country. If you live in a red state, don’t be complacent: it is highly likely that your children are being taught to hate America.

Incongruous as it may seem—and it’s really not—Trump should assume that mantle and make it the number one issue of his campaign to recapture the presidency.

He should start now, very publicly, because, as I noted, we are in crisis, destroying more of our youth by the minute and with them America’s future.

In so doing, Trump would be expanding his base.

Roger is more sanguine than I am about a Trump candidacy in 2024. To say that Trump carries a lot of baggage is, of course, an understatement, and having lost one run for the presidency–Roger thinks he really won, while I am agnostic, but the point remains–being renominated is likely a path to Adlai Stevenson status. Still, Roger’s point is well-taken, no matter who the GOP nominee is:

This would be especially true of two key parts of the electorate where he did not fare particularly well—suburban women and blacks (where he did better than most Republicans but not yet good enough).

The suburban women will need some wooing (they’ve been propagandized endlessly against him), but many blacks already see school choice as the civil rights movement of our time. (Teaching young black kids that it’s okay not to learn basic math is about as condescending… and racist… as you can get.)

That last point is telling. The Democrats allege that math is “racist” because of its emphasis on getting the right answer. So, yeah: let’s tell young blacks that any answer will do. That Asian kid? He might be able to solve the problem, but it is too tough for you. Don’t even try. Nothing better illustrates the grotesque racism of modern liberalism.

Near the end of his presidency [Trump] took on phony “diversity” training, critical race theory, and the fundamentally dishonest 1619 Project that even the New York Times, where it first appeared, walked back. Instead, he initiated the 1776 Commission that Biden, of course, killed.

True. Roger suggests that Trump start now to stake out education as an issue, beginning by selecting Hillsdale President Larry Arnn as “the secretary of education in waiting.”

I am a fan of Larry’s, but I would just as soon someone other than Donald Trump–like, for example, Ron DeSantis, Tom Cotton or Kristi Noem–tout him as Secretary of Education in Waiting. But Roger’s larger point is sound: America’s educational system, dominated by far-left teachers’ unions, is working hard to destroy America.

This issue must be front and center in the 2020 Congressional elections, and in the 2024 presidential election. My own organization has taken on the issue of left-wing indoctrination in the schools repeatedly, for example here (dating to 2017, I am proud to say), here, here, here, and on many other occasions.

Democrats have generally owned the education issue because the political debate is generally framed in terms of spending. Are you in favor of better education? Then spend more money! Yet while spending on education has skyrocketed, results have declined. (See, for example, this report.) I think a great many Americans, including lots of parents, have figured out through their own experience that the problem with American education is not a lack of money, it is a lack of common sense and pro-America, pro-free enterprise sentiment. By 2024 the time should be right for a populist rebellion on education. Let’s hope that by then it isn’t too late.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/04/trump-the-education-president.php