Obama Cabinet official: Trump doesn’t want educated workforce

Former President Obama’s Education secretary slammed President Trump on Tuesday, telling CNN that he doesn’t appear to want an educated workforce.

Arne Duncan said on CNN’s “New Day” that a low-educated workforce plays into Trump’s “authoritarian tendencies,” as better-informed citizens would be better positioned to question his false or misleading claims, according to The Washington Post.

“I’m not sure President Trump wants to have the best-educated workforce,” Duncan said. “I think it doesn’t play to his authoritarian tendencies.”

“I think we value our guns more than we do our kids,” says Arne Duncan, former secretary of education for the Obama administration of gun violence in schools: “We have failed to keep them safe” https://t.co/RGsvj6UjJW pic.twitter.com/3OOHZ2Y0hR

— New Day (@NewDay) August 7, 2018

Trump’s top officials on education policy, including Secretary Betsy DeVos, are “really struggling” when it came to managing the public school system, Duncan told CNN.{mosads}

“I think they’re really struggling. There’s no vision. There’s no meaningful strategy,” he said. 

Duncan has been highly critical of DeVos and other Trump administration officials on education policy and in particular the issue of gun violence in schools. In the same interview Tuesday, he told CNN that the current president puts the value of guns above students’ lives, as did past administrations.

“I think we value our guns more than we do our kids,” Duncan said. “What I honestly believe is that young people are going to succeed where we as adults have failed. We have failed to keep them safe.”

In May, Duncan made headlines with a call for a national public school walkout until the Trump administration and GOP-held Congress passed gun reform laws.

“What if no children went to school until gun laws changed to keep them safe? My family is all in if we can do this at scale. Parents, will you please join us?” he tweeted.