Jennifer Jenkins, chair of Educated We Stand, joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss President Donald Trump's actions regarding education in the first few months of his second term.
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00:00Hi everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now
00:07is founder and chair of Educated We Stand, Jennifer Jenkins. Jennifer, thanks so much
00:11for coming back on. Thanks for having me. You and I have talked about education under the
00:17Trump administration in the past, and I want to touch base with you right now to see where
00:22you think they are. We passed the 100-day mark of President Trump's first 100 days in
00:28his second term. What has stuck out to you on where you think the administration's going
00:33when it comes to education in this country? I think this administration is doing exactly
00:40what we've been seeing over the past couple of years by coordinated groups attempting to
00:45take over public education and inserting divisive political battles with extremism. They are
00:52doing everything they can to manufacture distractions and dissuade people from paying attention
00:58to the real issues. We're not talking about things that matter to our students and to
01:02our families, like teacher shortages or mental health crises with our students, our outdated
01:09school infrastructures, or recovering from literacy rates after the pandemic. All of that's being
01:15ignored, and I just believe that we're continuing to do this culture war distraction because they
01:20don't really actually care about improving education. They just care about creating fear and division.
01:24So let's first talk about what is happening between K through 12. President Trump's administration
01:31ended $1 billion in mental health grants for schools, and this is what they said the reasoning
01:37was. They said this to NewsNation, quote, under the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden administration,
01:42grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that
01:47have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help.
01:52What do you make of that action, and what do you make of that response?
01:57I think this action is just pretty consistent with most of his behaviors. I think that most of Trump's
02:03administration attacks are not just an attack on education, attacks on funding for specific
02:09services like mental health. I just think that these are our rollbacks of civil rights protections,
02:14just plain and simple. You know, the executive order dealing with school discipline,
02:18that was intentional as well. You know, this was something that was guidance to correct deeply
02:24documented racial disparity in school discipline, and Trump went to sought out and erase that as well.
02:30Can you talk a little bit about that? I mean, they were touting that school discipline executive
02:35order. Talk to us a little bit about that action and what you think it's really going to do.
02:40I mean, just quite frankly, black and brown students are still being punished more harshly
02:47than their white peers for the exact same behaviors. And that's what, you know, the Obama era guidance
02:53was trying to correct and hold states accountable for. And the data is very, very clear. They are being,
03:01students of color are being suspended and expelled at higher rates than white peers for the exact same
03:06offenses. And those offenses are often really subjective, like things like defiance or willful
03:12disobedience. These aren't egregious things that are being happening. And I can speak in my own
03:17district, you know, for years, I pointed out the disparities and everyone just turned a blind eye.
03:22We had data that showed that when white peers did the same actions as our students of color,
03:30they did so at a higher rate. Yet 50% of our students in our alternative learning centers were black and brown.
03:36I mean, the math never made sense. And every time I asked about that, the subject changed. So
03:41again, I don't think that this is anything, anything different from the Trump administration. I think
03:47this is a rollback of civil rights protections. And quite frankly, it's dangerous because it's
03:51something that we've never even corrected in the first place. I had a conversation with former
03:57Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, and she was concerned about the data that's coming out about
04:03test scores and education after the pandemic and beyond in these past five years. And the education
04:10department in the first few months of the Trump administration paused pandemic-era funding that
04:14would directly impact after-school programs, tutoring programs, and summer learning programs. I mean,
04:20what do you think are the implications there?
04:21There's significant implications. I mean, again, it just shows that this administration doesn't
04:29prioritize what's best for our students. All we talk about are, you know, the traditional culture
04:34war conversations. And if you really care about improving public education, if you think it's
04:38really not doing well, then stripping resources and funding away isn't the answer. And, you know,
04:44it's my opinion is, is that to intentionally to continue to deflate the amount of educators that
04:50we have in the system for our kids to destabilize our public education system. Not only are we ripping
04:56funding away, but on top of that, we're vilifying our teachers for doing their jobs, for teaching
05:01honest history, for supporting their students in creating inclusive environments, we're surveilling
05:07them. And already across this country have over 50,000 teacher vacancies nationwide. And so when
05:13students don't have teachers in front of the classroom, when access to programs and to resources
05:18are being stripped away, our students are losing their stability and their opportunity.
05:24President Trump also signed an executive order surrounding AI and teaching AI in the classroom.
05:29Do you think that's a silver lining? What do you make of that?
05:34You know, it's hard to say that there's something negative about that. But again, I just,
05:38I believe that it's political pandering. You know, these are things that are already happening in our
05:43classrooms. But if the administration wants to focus on STEM education and increased resources,
05:50I mean, it's not something to be upset about. But to pretend that that's something that's going to be
05:54good for all of our kids is just foolish. And again, we need to be focusing on all of our students
06:00in these buildings, all of their interests, and making sure that there's a wide range of opportunities
06:05for all of our kids.
06:06In the past few months, we've seen this battle between higher education and the Trump administration,
06:11and most recently, and probably most publicly between Harvard and the Trump administration.
06:17And just this past week, they've upped the ante. The Trump administration said the university is
06:22ineligible for research grants, quote, until they demonstrate responsible management of the
06:27university. What are your thoughts on this fight between Harvard University, which is arguably
06:32the most elite, if not one of the most elite colleges in this country, versus the White House?
06:38This isn't about Harvard. This is about dismantling trust in institutions that value academic freedom
06:48and value inclusion. The attacks that the Trump administration are doing on higher education are
06:54exactly what this broad right-wing agenda always does. It's trying to delegitimize our education system
07:01over issues like diversity and activism and institutional autonomies. Their goal isn't to
07:08reform anything. Their goal is to control it. They want to punish schools that have critical
07:12thinking and diversity on their campuses. And, you know, it's just, this is an attack on First
07:18Amendment freedoms, but it's also an attack on our national interest. You know, these are the best
07:24researchers we could have working on the most important health challenges that we have here,
07:30and taking away these critical funds for these researchers is really dangerous for this country.
07:36I mean, what, aside from Harvard and itself, what are the long-term impacts of taking away these
07:43research grants? I mean, what does this do to the country? What exactly would the loss of that
07:48research mean for the rest of the United States? It's critical. It will have a very, very dangerous
07:55impact on our national interests. I mean, these are researchers who are working on critical health
08:02challenges, things like cancer research. To take that away is just so dangerous and so foolish. And
08:10if they can do this to Harvard, they can do this to public education at every single level. They can do
08:16this from kindergarten to college. And so it's really important that these universities come together
08:21in solidarity and push back against these attacks. Because our K-12 students eventually go into these
08:27universities and they become those innovators and those researchers that we need to move forward and
08:32make progress and do better for the greater good. Conservatives have argued that universities in this
08:39country for a while now are more of a left-leaning echo chamber. There are arguments that
08:46Harvard and other universities didn't do enough to combat anti-Semitism last year and beyond. And
08:52Linda McMahon said this on the federal grant phrases that the federal government has a, quote,
08:56sacred responsibility to spend taxpayer dollars wisely, and that receiving such taxpayer funds is a
09:03privilege, not a right. What do you make of that argument?
09:05I think it's, I think it's really silly to say that colleges and universities are echo chambers for
09:14the left. I think, what are we, are we claiming that, you know, conservative students don't exist in
09:19this country, conservative adults didn't go to college. I mean, it's just such a, such a silly thing
09:23to say. But I mean, you did bring up a really good point. The rise in anti-Semitism globally and here in
09:30the United States, it's real, and it's very, very concerning. And Jewish students across this country
09:35absolutely deserve to feel safe on campus. At the same time, though, universities like Harvard must
09:42protect those students' rights, but they also must protect the rights to protest and engage with, like,
09:47difficult global issues, because we can and we must hold both of those as truths. We can stand firmly
09:55against hate, but we could also defend free speech for our students. Where do you see education going?
10:01Because this has only happened in the first, a little bit over 100 days now. We still have over
10:07three and a half years of President Trump's second term. We didn't even get into President Trump
10:12signing an executive order to close the Department of Education. So what do you think, where is education
10:17going in the next four years? What specifically are you looking out for next?
10:21I can't even predict that. I think we're going to continue to see manufactured distractions. I think
10:31we're going to continue to see an increase in teacher shortages. We're going to see more
10:36mental health crises for our students. It's scary and it's dangerous. It's unpredictable,
10:42which makes it worse. I'm just going to continue to keep an eye on it and fight back as much as I
10:47possibly can. And I think something that the data shows is that there is a mental health crisis
10:54amongst young people in this country. Test scores are worse now than they have been. I mean, do any of
11:01these actions actually address those types of problems that we're seeing in American education?
11:08No, absolutely not. I mean, all of our kids are struggling. That's clear as day. And especially if
11:13you ask anyone who's working with our kids day in and day out, they'd be the first to tell you that
11:17that's true. You know, we we haven't seen any increase in mental health support for our kids. And
11:22and quite frankly, the Trump administration, instead of doing such such a thing like that,
11:27they believe that bringing more police into the classrooms is going to help serve some of the
11:31struggles and the trauma that our kids are basing on a daily basis. So no, no, I don't think we're doing
11:37anything about it. Florida, which is where you're at, is the state that's really been at the forefront
11:43of this battle in education in the United States. I mean, on the ground there, what exactly are you
11:50seeing? I mean, what is the temperament like in the Sunshine State? It's it's similar to what it's
11:58been, unfortunately, over the past four years. We have educators who are scared about making the wrong
12:04move in their jobs. We have teachers who are tired and frustrated because there are so many
12:10vacancies across campuses that they have to pick up the slack for those voids. We have families who
12:15are frustrated. They believe that their schools are already being disfunded and that they're they're
12:22seeing the effects of the expansion of the voucher program. Four billion dollars was spent last year
12:28expanding vouchers across the state of Florida, which has brought already significant impacts to local
12:33community public schools. It's again, there is this this destabilizing feeling across the state when
12:41it comes to public education. And since Governor DeSantis really put his sights on education year over
12:48year, have you seen test scores increase? I mean, what does that data look like?
12:54Yeah, very often you'll hear Governor DeSantis talk about Florida being number one in education.
12:59The reality is we are 50th in the nation for teacher pay. We are first in the country for the
13:07number of book bands. The size of our classroom student to teacher ratios are increasing. We're in
13:12the top in the country, which is an embarrassment. And our test scores fall here after year. SAT scores are
13:20falling year after year. So it's it's frustrating to hear this narrative that we're number one in
13:26education. But the reality is and the data shows we aren't doing well. And the policies of DeSantis are not
13:32improving our academics.
13:34President Trump has said on the campaign trail that education was going to be a big part of his second term.
13:41I'm curious, what do you think then is missing from this national dialogue and even this conversation right now
13:47between me and you when it comes to what President Trump in the past couple of months has done to education in this country?
13:53A plan, progress, something that focuses on improving our public schools and improving the lives of our
14:04students. Simply just, you know, broad based policies that parents can choose where to send their kids
14:10isn't the answer if you're not providing them places that you think are doing well to send their kids
14:16to. And, you know, ripping away resources to our most vulnerable children, our children with disabilities, our
14:22children who are low income, who are hungry. What is the plan for those kids?
14:27And I just hope that we continue to put pressure on this administration to articulate some kind of policy rather than
14:36continuously issuing executive orders that continues to ban and strip away resources.
14:40Jennifer, I always appreciate our conversations. Thank you so much for your insight.
14:46And as we see the administration have more actions on education, I hope you can come back on and comment on them.
14:52Thanks for your time today. Thanks. Thanks for having me.