After having reflected that he hopes that his selection of the Secretary of Education “has taken out of work”, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has repeatedly promised to close the United States Department of Education. It has already moved to redirect federal funds to expand the choice of school in the United States K-12 system. Here is a look at the problem and if I could influence schools in Canada.
Can Trump really delete the education department?
In the US, education is largely the responsibility of state governments, which guide local school districts in schools in execution. The states mainly finance the K-12 schools, establish curricular and graduation requirements, and regulate teachers.
Federally, the Department of Education supports states with policy recommendations, collects educational data and programs of funds typically linked to equity, such as subsidies for K-12 schools to serve students with disabilities or those of low-income families . The largest portion of the department’s funds actually allocates the postsecundarios, such as the Federal Student Aid Program, subsidies to universities and adult education and training programs.
For decades, some Republican politicians have tried to close or reduce the role of the department.
An act of Congress began: “Therefore, an act of Congress would be needed to get rid of it, and that is not likely,” says Christopher Lubienski, professor of educational policy at the University of Indiana in Bloomington.
However, Trump can drastically disburse programs, for example, cut contracts for continuing education research this week, and redirect discretionary spending to favor school choice, said Lubienski.
How does the school choice relate to the K-12 system?
Free local public schools are the breach of the United States. percent) and home education. This division varies according to the State. The defenders of the election of the school support the financing of the government of these alternative options, while the opponents denounce a greater erosion of the public system.
Private registration schools can execute the range from religious institutions administered by the Church to elite boarding schools, Lubienski said. Autonomous schools are free, administered in private and independent of local school districts, but are financed with public tax dollars. Household education, he said, is typically an option for families that reject the public system for ideological, religious or pedagogical reasons.
When traditional schools closed learning in person for early stretching in pandemic, many alternative options remained open, a popular movement between parents, said Lubienski, who has investigated school choice for several decades.
He anticipated that Trump can further encourage states to implement coupons programs, which have become the idea of the idea of expanding alternatives to traditional public schools.
What are coupons?
More than 20 states have some form of coupons programs, which generally take some funds for education and give them to families, to address the enrollment of private schools, for example, or cover the costs of education in the home. Programs commonly take the form of coupons, educational savings or tax credits accounts.
Christopher Lubienski, professor of educational policy at the University of Indiana and researcher of school choice in the United States, explains school coupons and provides them with a brief history of them.
The idea is not new: economist Milton Friedman discussed the concept in 1955, Lubienski said, but there has been a growing interest since the 1990s, especially in some conservative states and a great activity in recent years.
What is the concern for more coupons programs?
Supporters say that coupons programs foster competition in education and give parents more freedom to choose where, what and how their children learn. Some see them as a tool for equity, allowing students of low -income families or with disabilities, for example, accessing options beyond their local public school (although coupons do not always cover the enrollment completely) .
With an increase in interest and growth of coupons available for anyone (where previous programs had related limits, for example, household income or special education needs), others have indicated that recent recent recent Financing are students who had already been assisting private students. Schools
Others have criticized the lack of transparency in these programs, their cost and even their use for rural regions.
“There has been a lot of rejection of some rural communities against coupons because … they do not necessarily have a private school in the area that could take a coupon,” Lubienski said. In Texas, for example, “there have been many conservative rural legislators who rejected the idea of coupons because they are really linked to their public schools administered by the community.”
Christopher Lubienski, professor of educational policy at the University of Indiana, describes several important concerns about the impulse of the White House to expand state coupons programs for schooling.
Could this affect schools in Canada?
In Canada, where provinces and territories preside over education, 91 percent of K-12 students are enrolled in public school. About eight percent are in private or independent school, and the rest is educated at home from 2022-2023, according to Statistics Canada.
Throughout the decades, decisions such as the subsidies of private schools in Quebec and the financing of Ontario Catholic schools have contributed to the current mixture of education offers throughout the country, says EE-Seul Yoon, a researcher of choice of school in Canada and professor of associated education at the University of the University of the University of Manitoba.
However, “what happens in the United States is important [and] It has influence, “he said.
He pointed out that an influx of Americans who arrived in Canada in the 70s helped present the free school movement here, while the United States Autonomous Schools that emerged in the 90s aroused the sufficient interest that Alberta collected the practice.
As in the United States, Canadian families began to resort to public school alternatives (such as home education or learning capsules) during COVID-19. That said, Yoon says that there were already more parents who were looking for schools and programs of choice for their children, such as international baccalaureate, French immersion, arts or stem offers, to provide an advantage for the postsecundaria.
While the term “school choice” is positive: “Who doesn’t like choice?” Yoon pointed out: we are talking about the privatization of education and we must take into account that these elections are not accessible to all, he said.
Given the direction in the United States, Canadian education leaders could take advantage of this opportunity “to reflect on what has been happening here … Who has [the current system] Have you been working well for? Who have we left behind? ”
