Trump's Latest Jabs Against Chicago Focus On Public Schools
By Rachel Cromidas in News on Apr 4, 2017 10:26PM
Getty Images / Photo: Pool
Most of President Donald Trump's comments about Chicago have painted the city as a crime-ridden war zone of sorts. But on Tuesday morning his latest jabs centered on Chicago's public school performance, along with other major cities like New York and Los Angeles.
“If you look at so many elements of education, and it’s so sad to see what’s coming, what’s happening in the country. Even the numbers, as good—you say we’re doing better, but the numbers in New York, the numbers in Chicago are very rough. The numbers in Los Angeles, the cities, it’s a very rough situation.” Trump said during an event called a "CEO Town Hall."
Trump's Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, has been criticized for having no experience working in the public education system and for celebrating school vouchers and charter schools with little demonstrated knowledge of how to improve public schools.
In the Town Hall, Trump state that he supports making "education more local," by empowering local districts to decide how they want to measure success, rather than through federal mandates like the Common Core teaching standards. "Common Core is, to me, we have to end it," he said, according to the Sun-Times.
The Mayor's Office released a statement Tuesday afternoon refuting the administration's suggestion that the "numbers" are very rough:
"Once again, facts don't matter to this administration. If they cared about facts and if they cared about the truth, they would know Chicago's students are outperforming their peers across the nation. Last year Chicago's students were among the nation's leaders in fourth grade reading gains and eighth grade math gains. Chicago leads all urban school districts for the increase in our graduation rate. Our students have achieved record highs for ACT scores and college acceptance. In fact, Chicago is the large urban system that grows its kids the most anywhere, according to an analysis done by Sean Reardon at Stanford University. That may not match what this administration thinks about our nation's public schools, but it's the truth."
The Mayor's Office also linked to recent New York Times and Huffington Post stories that address the analysis on student performance in Chicago.