The 2016 election of Donald Trump was surprising to a majority of the nation, since many news outlet polls predicted a Hillary Clinton win. But now the nation is looking to Trump to steer the republic — and he has made the direction he has chosen for higher education clearer since the election.
Trump recently appointed Betsy DeVos, billionaire and former chair of Michigan’s Republican Party, as secretary of education. DeVos is a proponent of privatized education, which has some pegging the decision as a defining embodiment of the Trump administration’s attitude toward future education policies.
During Trump’s campaign, he captured his voters by appealing to their concerns about the current economy andpolitical correctness, and by establishing a common enemy — elites who criticized his policies. This, along with tendencies toward anti-intellectualism, ties into how higher education may be affected by Trump’s election and how campus activists at Ithaca College and nationwide will continue to respond to Trump’s policies.
How about we start teaching kids tolerance for the people who need it the MOST. Tolerance for people with special needs. We’ve wasted years on teaching students how to accept men who like other men, women who like other women, women who want to dress or be men, men who want to dress like or be women, blacks, natives, etc…but we have completely FAILED to teach US students how to protect and advocate for the most vulnerable among us: People with developmental disabilities. This is the forgotten minority and it’s disgusting, dangerous and naive. Look how about of disabled has skyrocketed in USA over the past decade. What does this say about our public school system? People with developmental disabilities can’t always speak up. They can’t protest. They don’t march in the street. They depend on OTHERS to speak and fight for them! Our US schools have miserable FAILED to train students to protect and advocate for the most vulnerable citizens in our country. Time for a change.