Trump White House Is 'Inserting Divisive Political Battles' Into Education: Educated We Stand Chair

Forbes Breaking News

Jennifer Jenkins, chair of Educated We Stand, joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss President Donald Trump's actions regarding education in the first few months of his second term.

Transcript

00:00Hi everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now

00:07is founder and chair of Educated We Stand, Jennifer Jenkins. Jennifer, thanks so much

00:11for coming back on. Thanks for having me. You and I have talked about education under the

00:17Trump administration in the past, and I want to touch base with you right now to see where

00:22you think they are. We passed the 100-day mark of President Trump's first 100 days in

00:28his second term. What has stuck out to you on where you think the administration's going

00:33when it comes to education in this country? I think this administration is doing exactly

00:40what we've been seeing over the past couple of years by coordinated groups attempting to

00:45take over public education and inserting divisive political battles with extremism. They are

00:52doing everything they can to manufacture distractions and dissuade people from paying attention

00:58to the real issues. We're not talking about things that matter to our students and to

01:02our families, like teacher shortages or mental health crises with our students, our outdated

01:09school infrastructures, or recovering from literacy rates after the pandemic. All of that's being

01:15ignored, and I just believe that we're continuing to do this culture war distraction because they

01:20don't really actually care about improving education. They just care about creating fear and division.

01:24So let's first talk about what is happening between K through 12. President Trump's administration

01:31ended $1 billion in mental health grants for schools, and this is what they said the reasoning

01:37was. They said this to NewsNation, quote, under the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden administration,

01:42grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that

01:47have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help.

01:52What do you make of that action, and what do you make of that response?

01:57I think this action is just pretty consistent with most of his behaviors. I think that most of Trump's

02:03administration attacks are not just an attack on education, attacks on funding for specific

02:09services like mental health. I just think that these are our rollbacks of civil rights protections,

02:14just plain and simple. You know, the executive order dealing with school discipline,

02:18that was intentional as well. You know, this was something that was guidance to correct deeply

02:24documented racial disparity in school discipline, and Trump went to sought out and erase that as well.

02:30Can you talk a little bit about that? I mean, they were touting that school discipline executive

02:35order. Talk to us a little bit about that action and what you think it's really going to do.

02:40I mean, just quite frankly, black and brown students are still being punished more harshly

02:47than their white peers for the exact same behaviors. And that's what, you know, the Obama era guidance

02:53was trying to correct and hold states accountable for. And the data is very, very clear. They are being,

03:01students of color are being suspended and expelled at higher rates than white peers for the exact same

03:06offenses. And those offenses are often really subjective, like things like defiance or willful

03:12disobedience. These aren't egregious things that are being happening. And I can speak in my own

03:17district, you know, for years, I pointed out the disparities and everyone just turned a blind eye.

03:22We had data that showed that when white peers did the same actions as our students of color,

03:30they did so at a higher rate. Yet 50% of our students in our alternative learning centers were black and brown.

03:36I mean, the math never made sense. And every time I asked about that, the subject changed. So

03:41again, I don't think that this is anything, anything different from the Trump administration. I think

03:47this is a rollback of civil rights protections. And quite frankly, it's dangerous because it's

03:51something that we've never even corrected in the first place. I had a conversation with former

03:57Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, and she was concerned about the data that's coming out about

04:03test scores and education after the pandemic and beyond in these past five years. And the education

04:10department in the first few months of the Trump administration paused pandemic-era funding that

04:14would directly impact after-school programs, tutoring programs, and summer learning programs. I mean,

04:20what do you think are the implications there?

04:21There's significant implications. I mean, again, it just shows that this administration doesn't

04:29prioritize what's best for our students. All we talk about are, you know, the traditional culture

04:34war conversations. And if you really care about improving public education, if you think it's

04:38really not doing well, then stripping resources and funding away isn't the answer. And, you know,

04:44it's my opinion is, is that to intentionally to continue to deflate the amount of educators that

04:50we have in the system for our kids to destabilize our public education system. Not only are we ripping

04:56funding away, but on top of that, we're vilifying our teachers for doing their jobs, for teaching

05:01honest history, for supporting their students in creating inclusive environments, we're surveilling

05:07them. And already across this country have over 50,000 teacher vacancies nationwide. And so when

05:13students don't have teachers in front of the classroom, when access to programs and to resources

05:18are being stripped away, our students are losing their stability and their opportunity.

05:24President Trump also signed an executive order surrounding AI and teaching AI in the classroom.

05:29Do you think that's a silver lining? What do you make of that?

05:34You know, it's hard to say that there's something negative about that. But again, I just,

05:38I believe that it's political pandering. You know, these are things that are already happening in our

05:43classrooms. But if the administration wants to focus on STEM education and increased resources,

05:50I mean, it's not something to be upset about. But to pretend that that's something that's going to be

05:54good for all of our kids is just foolish. And again, we need to be focusing on all of our students

06:00in these buildings, all of their interests, and making sure that there's a wide range of opportunities

06:05for all of our kids.

06:06In the past few months, we've seen this battle between higher education and the Trump administration,

06:11and most recently, and probably most publicly between Harvard and the Trump administration.

06:17And just this past week, they've upped the ante. The Trump administration said the university is

06:22ineligible for research grants, quote, until they demonstrate responsible management of the

06:27university. What are your thoughts on this fight between Harvard University, which is arguably

06:32the most elite, if not one of the most elite colleges in this country, versus the White House?

06:38This isn't about Harvard. This is about dismantling trust in institutions that value academic freedom

06:48and value inclusion. The attacks that the Trump administration are doing on higher education are

06:54exactly what this broad right-wing agenda always does. It's trying to delegitimize our education system

07:01over issues like diversity and activism and institutional autonomies. Their goal isn't to

07:08reform anything. Their goal is to control it. They want to punish schools that have critical

07:12thinking and diversity on their campuses. And, you know, it's just, this is an attack on First

07:18Amendment freedoms, but it's also an attack on our national interest. You know, these are the best

07:24researchers we could have working on the most important health challenges that we have here,

07:30and taking away these critical funds for these researchers is really dangerous for this country.

07:36I mean, what, aside from Harvard and itself, what are the long-term impacts of taking away these

07:43research grants? I mean, what does this do to the country? What exactly would the loss of that

07:48research mean for the rest of the United States? It's critical. It will have a very, very dangerous

07:55impact on our national interests. I mean, these are researchers who are working on critical health

08:02challenges, things like cancer research. To take that away is just so dangerous and so foolish. And

08:10if they can do this to Harvard, they can do this to public education at every single level. They can do

08:16this from kindergarten to college. And so it's really important that these universities come together

08:21in solidarity and push back against these attacks. Because our K-12 students eventually go into these

08:27universities and they become those innovators and those researchers that we need to move forward and

08:32make progress and do better for the greater good. Conservatives have argued that universities in this

08:39country for a while now are more of a left-leaning echo chamber. There are arguments that

08:46Harvard and other universities didn't do enough to combat anti-Semitism last year and beyond. And

08:52Linda McMahon said this on the federal grant phrases that the federal government has a, quote,

08:56sacred responsibility to spend taxpayer dollars wisely, and that receiving such taxpayer funds is a

09:03privilege, not a right. What do you make of that argument?

09:05I think it's, I think it's really silly to say that colleges and universities are echo chambers for

09:14the left. I think, what are we, are we claiming that, you know, conservative students don't exist in

09:19this country, conservative adults didn't go to college. I mean, it's just such a, such a silly thing

09:23to say. But I mean, you did bring up a really good point. The rise in anti-Semitism globally and here in

09:30the United States, it's real, and it's very, very concerning. And Jewish students across this country

09:35absolutely deserve to feel safe on campus. At the same time, though, universities like Harvard must

09:42protect those students' rights, but they also must protect the rights to protest and engage with, like,

09:47difficult global issues, because we can and we must hold both of those as truths. We can stand firmly

09:55against hate, but we could also defend free speech for our students. Where do you see education going?

10:01Because this has only happened in the first, a little bit over 100 days now. We still have over

10:07three and a half years of President Trump's second term. We didn't even get into President Trump

10:12signing an executive order to close the Department of Education. So what do you think, where is education

10:17going in the next four years? What specifically are you looking out for next?

10:21I can't even predict that. I think we're going to continue to see manufactured distractions. I think

10:31we're going to continue to see an increase in teacher shortages. We're going to see more

10:36mental health crises for our students. It's scary and it's dangerous. It's unpredictable,

10:42which makes it worse. I'm just going to continue to keep an eye on it and fight back as much as I

10:47possibly can. And I think something that the data shows is that there is a mental health crisis

10:54amongst young people in this country. Test scores are worse now than they have been. I mean, do any of

11:01these actions actually address those types of problems that we're seeing in American education?

11:08No, absolutely not. I mean, all of our kids are struggling. That's clear as day. And especially if

11:13you ask anyone who's working with our kids day in and day out, they'd be the first to tell you that

11:17that's true. You know, we we haven't seen any increase in mental health support for our kids. And

11:22and quite frankly, the Trump administration, instead of doing such such a thing like that,

11:27they believe that bringing more police into the classrooms is going to help serve some of the

11:31struggles and the trauma that our kids are basing on a daily basis. So no, no, I don't think we're doing

11:37anything about it. Florida, which is where you're at, is the state that's really been at the forefront

11:43of this battle in education in the United States. I mean, on the ground there, what exactly are you

11:50seeing? I mean, what is the temperament like in the Sunshine State? It's it's similar to what it's

11:58been, unfortunately, over the past four years. We have educators who are scared about making the wrong

12:04move in their jobs. We have teachers who are tired and frustrated because there are so many

12:10vacancies across campuses that they have to pick up the slack for those voids. We have families who

12:15are frustrated. They believe that their schools are already being disfunded and that they're they're

12:22seeing the effects of the expansion of the voucher program. Four billion dollars was spent last year

12:28expanding vouchers across the state of Florida, which has brought already significant impacts to local

12:33community public schools. It's again, there is this this destabilizing feeling across the state when

12:41it comes to public education. And since Governor DeSantis really put his sights on education year over

12:48year, have you seen test scores increase? I mean, what does that data look like?

12:54Yeah, very often you'll hear Governor DeSantis talk about Florida being number one in education.

12:59The reality is we are 50th in the nation for teacher pay. We are first in the country for the

13:07number of book bands. The size of our classroom student to teacher ratios are increasing. We're in

13:12the top in the country, which is an embarrassment. And our test scores fall here after year. SAT scores are

13:20falling year after year. So it's it's frustrating to hear this narrative that we're number one in

13:26education. But the reality is and the data shows we aren't doing well. And the policies of DeSantis are not

13:32improving our academics.

13:34President Trump has said on the campaign trail that education was going to be a big part of his second term.

13:41I'm curious, what do you think then is missing from this national dialogue and even this conversation right now

13:47between me and you when it comes to what President Trump in the past couple of months has done to education in this country?

13:53A plan, progress, something that focuses on improving our public schools and improving the lives of our

14:04students. Simply just, you know, broad based policies that parents can choose where to send their kids

14:10isn't the answer if you're not providing them places that you think are doing well to send their kids

14:16to. And, you know, ripping away resources to our most vulnerable children, our children with disabilities, our

14:22children who are low income, who are hungry. What is the plan for those kids?

14:27And I just hope that we continue to put pressure on this administration to articulate some kind of policy rather than

14:36continuously issuing executive orders that continues to ban and strip away resources.

14:40Jennifer, I always appreciate our conversations. Thank you so much for your insight.

14:46And as we see the administration have more actions on education, I hope you can come back on and comment on them.

14:52Thanks for your time today. Thanks. Thanks for having me.

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