The Trump Effect: 2016 Campaign And Our Schools

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Donald Trump, the Republican presidential frontrunner and likely nominee, has made it clear by the continuation of his unfiltered mouth that he has no concern about positive role modeling for anybody, let alone very impressionable kids. The Southern Poverty Law Center has released a new study called, "The Trump Effect - The impact of the presidential campaign on our nation's schools." It produces findings that are both powerful and sad.

Almost 2,000 K-12 teachers were surveyed without mentioning specific candidates’ names. Out of 5,000 comments, more than 1,000 mentioned Donald Trump. 

The "Trump Effect" report finds that our current presidential primary season is having a strong negative effect on our children and their classrooms. Unlike any in recent history:

"It's producing an alarming level of fear and anxiety among children of color and inflaming racial and ethnic tensions in the classroom. Many students worry about being deported. Other students have been emboldened by the divisive, often juvenile rhetoric in the campaign. Teachers have noted an increase in bullying, harassment and intimidation of students whose races, religions or nationalities have been the verbal targets of candidates on the campaign trail." 

Our classrooms have traditionally been the place where children learn about a presidential election, its process and role in our democracy. But thanks to campaign 2016, more than 40% of the teachers surveyed are now hesitant to teach about the campaign. "The word Trump is enough to derail a class," says a Texas teacher. Another from Oklahoma says, "My kids are terrified of Trump becoming President. They believe he can/will deport them - and none of them are Hispanic. They are all African American." 

Children being hurt, confused or frightened by what they see at televised Trump rallies is not the way to learn about civic responsibility. Neither is using Trump’s name to taunt and bully classmates.

Trump says he’s going to build a wall on the border with Mexico. The report shows us how that translates in some children’s minds:

“In Tennessee, a kindergarten teacher says a Latino child—told by classmates that he will be deported and trapped behind a wall—asks every day, “Is the wall here yet?”

If anyone wants to be outraged about something, this is it. We have a political season that is blind to seeing itself through the eyes of young people and has fostered one of the most negative Republican frontrunners in history.

Bernie Meet Hillary

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Bernie lost big and Hillary won big. That's the easy story of the New York primary. The future for both candidates is a story in motion. It's time for Senator Sanders to meet Secretary Clinton anew, and get back to respecting each other instead of fighting. The focus needs to be on November.  

Constituencies and demographics matter in election victories, and New York’s primary has the potential to show the real benefit of Bernie Sanders joining forces with Hillary Clinton to win the Presidential election. Exit polls show Sanders continued strength with millennials, but Hillary won those over 30 years of age. Not just those over 65. She had the overwhelmingly support of women and minorities, and all voters no matter the income level.

We've watched Sanders increase the velocity of tone and attacks on Secretary Clinton as he's continued to focus on his key issues of income inequality, Wall Street, free college education and universal healthcare. But his specifics on the issues remain foggy, and hers do not. Some kind of meeting of the minds presents an interesting order. Not an easy one, but an increasingly important one. 

Sander’s rousing calls for a revolution have met the more pragmatic Hillary Clinton. He's gotten her to move more to the left than when she started her campaign. But he has stayed where he began - the candidate of economic populism. In a state as diverse as New York, the election results show its limited appeal.

The Sanders’s crowds are filled with young people looking to get involved in the political system, and that's one of the most positive things we’ve seen in this entire political season. At this point, showing young people the benefit of being a leader who understands the importance of crossing different political aisles to achieve victory could be a lasting positive. Divide and conquer is no longer working for him.

Perhaps an impromptu conversation I had on a park bench yesterday, my personal exit poll, is a predictor of things that could come. The 29-year- old young man sitting next to me with his dog told me he was from New York. I asked if he had voted, and he said, "I sent in an absentee ballot and voted for Sanders, but after I sent it I began to realize I should have voted for Hillary. He's still not coming up with answers."

Clinton set the tone for her campaign going forward, reaching out to Sanders supporters in her acceptance speech. "There's much more that unites us than divides us." 

Equal Pay Day Highlights Need for Change

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April 12, 2016 is Equal Pay Day. It's not a holiday that gives you time off from work, but one that gives you the important opportunity to focus on the pay inequities that still exist between men and women. The date symbolizes how far into the year an average women must work to catch up with how much an average man earned in the previous year. This year women will have to work an extra 3 months and 16 days to make the same money as their male counterparts.

For anyone with daughters ... or mothers ... or sisters ... or grandmothers, the time has come to end gender pay inequities, and seriously look at its implications for today and all of our tomorrows. Whether it's paying off student debt as a young to middle age woman, raising children as a single or married mom, or retirement for those who reach that age, the money we as women aren't earning adds up. 

The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963. In 2015, women in the U.S. working full time still receive the equivalent of 79.6% of men's earnings. Too many employers have been allowed to turn their backs on this historic law : 

No employer having employees subject to any provisions of this section [section 206 of title 29 of the United States Code] shall discriminate, within any establishment in which such employees are employed, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such establishment for equal work on job.

Pay discrimination has morphed into what is known as the Gender Pay Gap. According to the National Women's Law Center, if we don’t act to change the wage gap, a woman starting out today stands to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of her career. The Center estimates based on today’s wage gap, women would lose $430,480 over the course of a 40-year career. For African American women, the losses are $877,480. For Hispanic or Latina women, the career losses increase to $1,007,080. The ramifications of these numbers are staggering.

And the Gender Pay Gap ages right along with us. A recent study released by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), shows that while men and women may start off their work years making close to the same money, after women reach 35 the gap begins to increase. Median earnings typically become 76-81 percent of what men are paid. Here's what will surprise many looking for solutions. The study shows that "education is not an effective pay gap solution.” At every level of academic achievement, women's median earnings are shown to be less than men's.

Women. Women. Women.

The last week of March 2016 became the week of women - in politics, sports and science. A unique trifecta was created highlighting women’s issues forty plus years after they should have been settled. Women are a key demographic to win the upcoming presidential election.

We have seen Republican presidential candidates publicly demean and victimize women during this campaign while continuing to strongly oppose a woman’s legal right to choice when it comes abortion. They have made it clear they want to overturn the 1973 landmark Supreme Court ruling, Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal. This week Donald Trump told us that any woman who seeks an abortion should be subject to “some form of punishment” if the procedure is banned. While he later changed his mind, his initial thinking on punishing women who have abortions is on record.

Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was formally arrested on battery charges for allegedly putting his hands on reporter Michelle Fields as she was trying to ask Trump a question. The candidate continues to defend Lewandowski’s action, at the same time he tells women how much he loves them. He had no qualms posting this on his Twitter account: “No one has more respect for women than Donald Trump.” It's a classic abusive mentality.

Trump’s opponent Ted Cruz is on record voting NO on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act in 2013. And let's not forget the third candidate in the race for the White House at this point, John Kasich. As Governor of Ohio earlier this year, he signed a bill defunding Planned Parenthood. On the campaign trail he said maternity leave should be left up to employers to "be creative.” Both Cruz and Kasich have said they oppose Trump's position on criminalizing women who have abortions. What a group.

On the issue of equal pay, our country's top five women soccer players finally had enough of being treated unequally, and filed a federal complaint accusing U.S Soccer of wage discrimination. Equal pay for more than equal work does not seem to apply to these soccer players, even though they’ve won three World Cup championships and four Olympic championships. The men's team doesn't come close in athletic comparison, posting a strong losing record. Yet, according to the complaint filed on March 31, the men earn 60% more than the women playing the same game. Who of us doesn't want to encourage any of our interested daughters to play sports today? But not if they're treated unequally. That's what Title IX was all about. We want them to look up and see role models like Billy Jean King who led the fight for women tennis players to be paid equally, enabling current tennis greats like Serena Williams to win over eleven million dollars in tournament play last year. 

The Food and Drug Administration announced a change this week in their guidelines for use of the abortion pill, easing access and saying their action is based on updated medical science. They extended the time in which a woman can take the prescribed pill from seven to ten weeks, and decreased the number of doctor visits for the procedure. The Guttmacher Institute, which tracks women's reproductive health issues, reports that 37% of women obtaining abortions identify as Protestant and 28% identify as Catholic. 

Both the Republican and Democratic parties are aggressively courting women voters. The latest Fox News poll shows that Republicans must win more women voters to succeed. Re-thinking their positions on equal pay, equal opportunity and choice might help. So might showing women greater respect.