“Government” Schools?

Where did Donald John Trump’s children get their education?  Where did Betsy DeVos go to school?  Did they go to what Trump called “government schools” in his State of the Union address? “Government schools”  apparently in Trump parlance, is another term for public schools.  Donald Jr. went to Buckley and Hill School, a college preparatory boarding school.  Eric went to Trinity School in NYC and Hill School. Both Donald Jr. and Eric eventually graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.  Ivanka went to Chapin School (a private school in Manhattan) and later to Choate Rosemary Hall (another private school).  She also graduated from the Wharton School.  I wonder if they had “student loans?”  By the way, Betsy DeVos was educated in Holland Christian Schools (a private school system) and graduated from Calvin College.  I wonder if she had a student loan?

Now before you jump to the conclusion that I am being partisan, please take the time to find out where President Kennedy, Carter, Bush, and Obama’s children received their education.  I’m sure they didn’t have student loans either, nor did they go to Trump’s “government schools.”

There are (as of 2019) 50.8 million Americans in public schools.  Sixty-six percent of students graduating from public colleges have student loan debt.  Seventy-five percent of those graduating from private non-profit colleges have student loan debt.  

I was educated in the public school system.  I went to a private non-profit college and had student loan debt. My children went to public schools and all three had college student loan debt.

If it were not for the so-called “government schools,” most Americans would not receive an education.  If it were not for “student loans” most Americans would not have a college education. So the question is:  Is education essential?  Or is it only for those who can afford it?

When public education first began in this country (not so very long ago) many thought education was a family’s responsibility.  Free public schooling, said some, “invaded the field of individual initiative, furnished gratuitous education to those ‘who were better suited to their station without it,’ and did not meet the nation’s real need for an adequate reserve of laborers who could very well dispense with education.”  Many then regarded public schools, to use a current phrase, as “creeping socialism.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (a very wealthy man who went to private schools) said, “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely.  The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”  And I would add, particularly “Public Education!”