What to Know
There might have been a time when parents didn’t consider issues within their school district to be a political matter, especially all the way to the White House. But after a teacher on TikTok, Samantha, shared a video where she talks about the decline of positive behavior in the classroom across the board, some seized this as an opportunity to blame Donald Trump for it.
His opinions and executive orders regarding public education are very real, whether all of the users in Samantha’s TikTok comment section agree that Trump is to blame or not. One part of Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill involves providing tax credit scholarships for families to potentially use for private education rather than public education. According to the Center for American Progress, Trump also cut $12 billion in federal education funding in 2025. So the debate about Trump being to blame for less than stellar public education isn’t totally out of pocket.
People say the Trump Administration is “purposely ruining” public education.
@__samanthajo We need a hard reset. #teachersoftiktok #publiceducation #disrespectintheclassroom #publiceducationisfailing #teachkindness ♬ original sound – samantha jo
In Samantha’s video, she says that, as a teacher, she has seen a wild change in students’ behavior and in her role as a teacher in general. In fact, she says, her days are spent “managing students’ behaviors” rather than primarily teaching. Because of that, she no longer enjoys teaching as much as she once did.
“I’m not a counselor, I’m not a behavior specialist, I’m a teacher,” she says. “And most of my job is managing behaviors. Most of my job is reaching out to admin and parents. That’s not what I signed up for, and that’s why so many teachers are leaving the profession.”
While some users in the comments blame this to turn on parents being too soft or gentle parenting to a fault, others pointed out the funding cuts to education in the United States. According to them, without proper funding, some public schools can’t get the right mental help that students need. And, as a result, the pressure to help students mentally and emotionally falls on the teachers.
“This administration is purposely ruining the public education system to privatize it,” someone commented.
Another person added that “education is failing because schools are outdated and not being innovative with redoing the system” They wrote that “kids are over-tested” and that some individuals actually want the public school system to fail, so there is little to no support to keep it afloat.
“You know what schools aren’t having this problem? Private schools,” another user agreed. “They are destroying public education on purpose.”
Another teacher commented that their job feels like it consists mostly of behavior control too. Whether that is a case-by-case thing depending on th e child or the issue really starts at home, some believe that Trump is to blame because of his apparent lack of concern for the public education system as we know it.
“Since the billionaires were allowed to take over, we have stopped making investments in public needs in this country,” another person commented on the TikTok. “It is going to devastate us for generations to come, and they will say this is because ‘women belong back at home.’ It’s all infuriating.”
Another user added that this issue “coincides with the politics of our time.”
