Donald Trump’s education plan would obliterate 490,000 teacher jobs, according to the think tank Center for American Progress Action Fund [CAPAF]. His horrendous plan would totally kill off the Department of Education; however, it gets worse.

When the Republican candidate was in Florida earlier this month, he said about the Education Department:

‘There is so much waste.’

But that is not all. He intends to decimate at the Environmental Protection Agency, too. Why? He needs to pay for his “billionaires-first” tax plan.

So, what would Trump’s plan do to the Department of Education? According to the CAPAF, eight million low-income students, or the equivalent of New York City’s population, would lose millions in college grants. The nearly half million teaching jobs would disappear; that’s 14 percent of all kindergarten through high school teachers across the country. CAPAF says that killing all those jobs would be the same as:

‘UPS, one of the country’s largest employers, with over 350,000 American workers—going out of business.’

According to the think tank, this would be the actual results of demolishing the Department of Education:

‘8 million students every year would lose Pell grants

490,000 or more teacher positions could be eliminated $1.3 trillion in student loans would be at risk

9 million low-income students would lose $15 billion of Title I funding annually

5 million children and students with disabilities would lose $12.7 billion used every year to ensure that they receive a quality education

750,000 or more students from military families, Native American students, students living in U.S. territories, and students living on federal property or Native American lands would lose $1.1 billion per year for their school

4,000 or more rural school districts would lose more than $175 million used annually to help improve the quality of teaching and learning in many hard-to-staff schools

$700 million used by states to support the 5 million English language learners currently in public schools—representing close to 10 percent of all students—would be cut.’

Other factors that would go by the wayside are the federal guarantees of equality in “race, income, language, and disability” in public education. A recent CBO [Congressional Budget Office] report indicated:

‘U.S. high school graduation rates are hitting all-time highs; dropout rates are at historical lows; college going rates are close to the highest they have ever been; and test scores across the country are improving. ‘ But the elimination of the protections and resources from the Department of Education could significantly hinder or even reverse these gains.’

The federal government has helped “states and school districts fill funding gaps created by the Great Recession.” That means under Trump, states like:

‘Pennsylvania and Ohio—which were dramatically hard hit by this recession—would each lose well over $ 2 billion annually in federal education funding.’

Discarding the budget of the Department of Education, which is under $70 billion, would be a fraction of the Trump billionaire’s tax plan’s budget of “$9.5 trillion 10-year price tag.”

It is no surprise that Trump forgot about his “earlier pledge to make education a top priority of the federal government.” President Ronald Reagan thought it would be a good idea to get rid of the Department of Education as a “source of major savings,” but then he had to reinstitute the department.

Reagan’s 1983 report “A Nation at Risk,” told people the failure to:

‘…deliver quality elementary and secondary education gave rise to “a rising tide of mediocrity” and recommended that it was “essential … for government at all levels to affirm its responsibility for nurturing the Nation’s intellectual capital.’

CAPAF believes that the support and protection of our country’s students should be a priority, no matter who is president. Trump’s plan for cutting the Department of Education:

‘To sacrifice resources for America’s students—particularly the most vulnerable—to pay for tax cuts that would unduly benefit the country’s top earners is as shortsighted as it is callous.’

That is what happens when people elect a man with no empathy nor concern for the average citizen. Then, too, the great dumbing down of America creates a malleable population.

To read the entire CAPAF report, it can be found at this link.

Featured Image: Prince Lang via Flickr, Creative Commons License, minor modification.

H/T: American Progress Action.