Dear Public School Teacher, how could you even consider voting for Trump?

I wrote a piece yesterday where I outlined Donald Trump Jr’s attack on teachers and it was fairly well received.

However a few public school teachers pushed back. They asked if I wrote the piece through a liberal lens and said they agreed with Trump Jr. A few people asked where I got my assertions which was quite flabbergasting as I put up a link to Trump Jr’s speech.  Um from his own words, I would reply.

First, Trump was wrong, it’s not the other side (Democrats) fault where we find ourselves, on the contrary this is a bipartisan mess. That being said, Trump did say public school teachers are the equivalent of lazy soviet clerks who only care about themselves and he blamed tenure while ignoring poverty, high stakes testing, punitive teacher evaluations and a lack of resources. Those sentiments come straight from the jackass’s horse’s mouth.

Let me ask you a question is it the fault of the veteran teacher their students are hungry, ill prepared, come from families that either don’t value education or don’t have the time or resources to help their child? Is it the veteran teacher’s fault that children often arrive to their class years behind? Of course not but there is Donald Trump Jr blaming teachers with tenure and sadly more than a few teachers are nodding along with him.

Make no mistake Donald Trump through his son has just told everyone America’s problems are public school teacher’s fault. That public school teachers are lazy and that they only care about themselves. He has also told you the way to improve education is to end work protections for teachers who only received them after years of able service.  

Trump is saying this, he is not hiding his disdain or blowing smoke, he is saying this to all our faces so there can be no mistake.

It’s beyond me how a public school teacher can hear those words and still think, hmm Trump is the candidate for me.

If we want change and improvement we must vote for candidates at all levels who support public education and then hold their feet to the fire to make sure they follow through with their promises. Trump’s promise is to destroy public education and the teaching profession along with it.