### Education Challenges: Focus on Real Issues, Not Politics

Education leaders must prioritize real issues like student success and mental health over political distractions.

### Prioritizing Education: Addressing Real Issues Over Political Distractions
* 📚 The politicization of education is detrimental, as it **diverts attention from critical issues** like the **academic struggles of millions of children post-pandemic**.
* 👩 High-dose tutoring is essential to help students catch up, while efforts must be made to **locate chronically absent children and encourage their return to school**.
* 🎓 Attracting and retaining quality teachers is crucial during this challenging time for education, alongside raising high school graduation rates to **prevent poverty and social failure**.
* 💰 Accessibility and affordability of college education must be prioritized to benefit families and communities, rather than focusing on **divisive political issues**.
* 😟 Parents are primarily concerned about their children's **mental health, bullying, and school safety**, which should be the focus of educational leaders.
* 🔍 The appointment of individuals without educational backgrounds, like Linda McMahon, raises concerns about **trust in institutions** and the potential for **sowing distrust in schools**.
* ⚠ There is a fear that current leadership may intentionally undermine public confidence in education, which is **essential for a thriving democracy and society**.
* 🇺🇸 A strong education system is vital for the nation's future, and losing sight of this focus could have **extraordinarily serious consequences for children and families**.

After I peace myself.
I hate the weaponization. I hate to put the politicization of
anything having to do with education because it's so critical to our nation.
What they do is they attack any three-letter acronym.
So call it CRT, call it DEI, I call it, 

see how they attack that.
Those aren't the issues that people are worried about.
What are the real issues? We have tens of millions of children who
are very far behind academically coming out of the pandemic.
We have to help them catch up as fast as 

we can through high-dose tutoring
while we have kids that are chronically absent who haven't come back to school.
We have to go find them, knock on doors, bring them in.
We need to attract and retain the best teachers we can.
This is a very tough time to be in 

education.
We have to continue to raise high school graduation rates because if you drop out
of high school today, you're basically condemned to poverty and social failure.
There are no good jobs out there for you.
We have to educate our way to a better 

economy.
We have to continue to make college more accessible and affordable.
Those are the kinds of real issues that touch real parents and real children and
real communities that whoever leads the Department of Education should be
focused on, not these distractions. 

They sort of manufacture fear about
things that don't make sense. Instead of spending time on things that
do, if you talk to parents, what are parents worried about today?
They're worried about their children's mental health.
They're worried about bullying in 

schools and they're worried about school
shootings and whether you will attack the department or just dismantle the party
and do whatever. That has nothing to do with helping
parents and helping children be successful.
Vast majority of parents in America, they

don't care.
They could care less about the power of education.
They care about their local school. They care passionately about their
child. That's where the focus has to be.
Not on these just political made-up divisive issues, really, it's disheartening.
It's so, so troubling to me.

Well, I really appreciate your honesty
and answering these questions. Lastly, what do you think of Linda
McMahon at the top of the agency? There's no reason to believe that she
will do all the things that Donald Trump suggests.
But you've got someone with no

background in education, remembering, of
course, you ran the school system in Chicago before you had that job.
Yeah. I guess my bigger concern, and obviously
I don't know her, have never met her, but my biggest concern is that if you
look at a number of his Cabinet

nominees, including starting with Betsy
DeVos, these are not people who anybody can trust.
And I really worry that he is very intentionally trying to create distrust
of all institutions. He's done that with the media.
He's done that with science.

He's doing that with his cabinet
nominees, trying to trying to create distrust in our own government.
I worry he's trying to create distrust in our neighborhood schools.
And that, unfortunately, is what authoritarian leaders do, is they try
to sow distrust in any institution and

become the only source of knowledge, the
only source of truth. So, again, I've never met her.
I don't have any sense. Obviously, she has no background to do
this job. The story was that she wanted to be the
commerce secretary, but the guy who *she*

picked to do that gave *him* more money.
So this was her consolation prize. I just hope she comes in, listens to
children and listens to teachers, loses the *parents* and does the right thing to
help America. I always say our military is our best
defense, but a great education system

is our best offense.
I truly hope we don't lose the plot here because the consequences for our
children, families and nation would be extraordinary, extraordinarily serious.

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Bloomberg Technology

Politicization of Education and Real Issues

Criticism of the weaponization and politicization of education.

Focus should be on addressing academic setbacks from the pandemic.

Importance of addressing chronic absenteeism and teacher retention.

Need to improve high school graduation rates to combat poverty.

Emphasis on making college more accessible and affordable.

Parental Concerns and Political Distractions

Parents' concerns about children's mental health, bullying, and school shootings.

Most parents prioritize their children's local schools over political issues.

Disappointment over the focus on divisive political issues.

Concerns about Linda McMahon's Appointment

Concerns about Linda McMahon's lack of education background.

Worry about a pattern of distrust-inducing cabinet nominees.

Concern about the intentional creation of distrust in institutions.

Authoritarian leaders sow distrust to become the sole source of truth.

Speculation about McMahon's appointment as a consolation prize.

Hope that McMahon will prioritize children and teachers.

A strong education system is crucial for national well-being.