Dive Brief:

• In his inaugural address on Friday, President Donald Trump lamented his view of an education system “flush with cash” that nevertheless leaves students “deprived of all knowledge,” drawing the ire of education leaders.
• EdSource reports that experts in California said Trump’s rhetoric undermines his lack of knowledge about public education in the United States, which puts him in line with other Republican leaders who have used such doom-and-gloom rhetoric to undermine support for public education.
• Bruce Fuller, a professor of education at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education, took issue with both of Trump’s claims, telling EdSource that the United States spends less on education than most East Asian and European countries, and has also seen improvement in academic performance over the past 40 years.

Dive Insight:

Trump made it to the White House after an aggressive campaign that disparaged public schools and the people who work in them. His key education proposal, besides eliminating the Common Core State Standards, has been to pour federal money into expanding state voucher programs so families can take their children out of public schools.

Trump’s pick for education secretary, Betsy DeVos, comes to the position with a history of fighting for school choice, including an expansion of charter schools as well as voucher programs. DeVos is a Michigan billionaire who has been an active Republican party donor for decades, and many educators are concerned with DeVos’ potential conflicts of interest. The Senate education committee has decided to postpone its confirmation vote one week, until Jan. 31, to give committee members more time to review a federal ethics report that was released late last week.