For many families in the public school system, Donald Trump getting elected in office meant bad news for their children’s education. Not just because he is a Republican who’s made promises to lower taxes, meaning he would cut public school’s funds, but because of his billionaire status and his likeness towards others with money such as himself.

Not only this, but his hire for the secretary of education gave us an idea for his thoughts of the futures for public schools. Trump hired Betsy DeVos, a very wealthy woman in her late ‘50s. She tweeted that she did not support common core education, which is used by many states to help prepare students for college and their adult life. DeVos plans on taking away 20 million plus dollars that is going towards scholarships for low income students.

DeVos went to a private school for her entire life, and so did her four children, and her husband. Clearly, she has had no experience of going to a public school or sending her kids to one, so it seems ridiculous that she is now in charge of making decisions for families who do go to public schools. She is also very wealthy, so she has had the luxury of going to a private school her whole life and sending her kids to one. She does not understand the struggles that kids with lower incomes have, including not having the opportunity to go to a private school because their public schools do not meet their needs.

DeVos has explained before that she wants to give families educational choice in choosing from any public, charter, and private schools they want. She wants to do this by using tax money for private schools rather than public schools, and giving vouchers, like food stamps, to those who can’t afford private education. This is bad for several reasons, like how 80 percent of private schools are religious, if public schools are bad because they are no longer getting money, students will be forced to go to a religious private school, which is taking away their religious freedom. Vouchers also do not cover the entire price of private schools, which means that low income families will still have to go to public schools.

Taking away tax dollars that go to public and charter schools means a higher student to teacher ratio, cuts in electives, and other things that private schools can control because they don’t rely on taxes. This gives students in private schools a much higher advantage than the rest of us.

It is clear as day that Trump hiring DeVos will not benefit those in public schools, but only those in the upper class who send their kids to private schools because they will no longer have to give as much of their tax money to public education.
For schools like Desert Vista, we don’t know what will happen in the future, but Trump and DeVos do not seem to be concerned about our public education, and instead, their concern seems to be on helping the rich get richer and those of us in public schools to have to suffer the consequences of a major budget cut. Will private schools soon trump public schools? In the next four years, we will find out.