The following is a transcript from the Pro America Report.
Welcome, Welcome, welcome. Ed Martin here on the Pro America Report. This is an important, important program today, more important than ever this first segment.
Because Donald Trump has described something that we have needed to have happen, I I suppose it will only happen if he becomes president.
So, but welcome to the Pro America Report. This is right up the alley of the Pro America Movement, America First movement and and President Trump has put his finger on the pulse of the American people. I I I think it’s. I heard this described once. I heard something similar described once by Scott Adams, Scott Adams, the Dilbert cartoonist who has become a commentator, really interesting commentator and author on politics and other things. And he once said if somebody like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett created a degree. A college degree where you could say when you went to a job interview, they’d say, well, do you have a bachelors from a university? And you’d say no, I’ve got a Gates degree or I’ve got a Buffet Diploma and and it was recognizable then, then people would accept it and once they accepted it, you could shatter the monopoly of the university system because they teach so many Things that aren’t Worth teaching and they forget so many things that are important to teach. I mean, they forget to do it or don’t forget, they don’t do it if they forget to do it. But they don’t do it.
So this idea of this notion of Of of having some kind of special new degree. Is exactly what Trump, Donald Trump talked about, where he said just in the last day or so he announced he wants to have a new institution for online education and call it the American Academy. And here’s where it’s important.
The school would grant credit to the students. Excuse me. The school would make sure that the credentials from the American Academy were sufficient and were qualified for jobs with the US government and federal contractors.
So you see, he because as president, he could do this, he could force everybody who is a contractor with the government to accept the degrees. You can’t say no. I need to get a university approved degree. No, they would. He’d be. And that and that’s everybody at this point in our culture. I mean, what what government federal government is the biggest employer. State governments get money from the federal government. They could likely lean on them and say you gotta count it. And so the American Academy would be an online education, higher Ed College.
And it would be free.
And it would combat the wokeness and jihadism because they wouldn’t be allowed.
Now think about this. The quote that Trump says is we spend more money on higher education than any other nation in the world. And yet our our higher education is turning our students into communists and terrorists and sympathizers of many, many different dimensions. We can’t let this happen. It’s a perfect, perfect time. I think it should have been done. I think Trump could have suggested it even before the last couple of weeks, but certainly the last couple of weeks have shown college students to be really, really misguided. Whether it’s the, excuse me, Hamas supporting or some of the others and the violence that’s going on, it’s wild.n
Now, important, Trump says he’s gonna make the higher education pay for it. How’s he gonna do that? Well, for the first time, this is awesome. Remember this in the 2017 tax law, Trump demanded and got a 1.4% tax on the investment income of our nation’s wealthiest private universities, so that those are the ones like Harvard that have a $50 billion endowment. Washington University in Saint Louis, I think they’ve got over $10 billion endowment. These places have huge endowments, and the money has been generated. In large part on the on the backs of the federal loan system. Of the the loan system that was that was created and managed in such a way that it and that it made it possible for lots and lots of people. Tons of people to have to have to get loans that shouldn’t have, student loans, and the guarantee was from the government, not the institution. So the institutions got paid. So you go to Wash U, Washington University in Saint Louis. It costs you $70,000. You can’t really afford to pay, you take loans. The schools get paid, they put the money in the bank, the students are the ones that are going to have a future that’s in in, in trouble and and problematic. But the not the not the not the universities. So anyway. So there’s huge endowments and Trump taxed them. Trump created, demanded a tax on those, should be more, he wanted more, but he couldn’t get it. The the legislative, the Congress backed off of it.
And so my point here is it would be paid for by the higher education. It’s fantastic. It’s perfect. It’s perfect. It’s. It’s a perfect way to do it. It’s a perfect time to do it, and you know the combination of online working so well. The the technology allows you to interact online. It’s not like the old Days where online meant You just watched a video. You know that doesn’t have to be it, although that can be a large part of it. And again, as someone said to me for ages. Why should the best teacher be limited to 1 university? The best teacher in the classroom, and you can say that Ohh well the the the teacher you know it’s the interaction. All that. Well maybe, maybe, but I think it’s actually also importantly and and and widely. Because of the actual presentation of material and so make those people available and then have discussion groups and everything else.
By the way, I do want to say there was talk of this coverage of this, that, that, that, that American University, the idea of a single a national. American University has been around for many, many years. George Washington addressed it. He was. We wanted a National University to promote science literature and civic education. You know, also there has been some efforts. Few years ago, I tracked that 1997, it started. But it kind of got accelerated in the last maybe 10 years. And it it’s called Western Governors University. It’s a private nonprofit online university based in in Utah. And it’s it’s a different kind of thing. It’s meant for advanced education, for working professionals. So things like, I think masters degrees and MBA’s and advanced degrees. So the, but that’s gotten a lot of attention. That’s got a lot of attention and and it’s grown. I don’t know why it got so popular about about 10 years ago, it started, they started running advertisements. I noticed some on radio and TV saying you should look into signing up. And they have colleges of of college, of Business, information, Technology teachers, college and then health professionals. And uh, all online, though all online, bachelors as well as masters. I’m finally looking at it. I found it but.
But the reality is the the the reality is that the. The reality is that the the the Western Governors Association is a non profit entity and it’s I think it’s private, did I say that it’s private. It’s not a publicly run thing. Yeah. So it’s not it’s it’s it’s not making money. I mean it’s not-for-profit but it’s private. So it’s doing something to sustain itself. This would be a federally funded federally mandated
Now my only problem with this, with the American Academy is this, and this is a big caveat.
It sounds really good when you can envision. Or when you not envision when you have someone running it who you respect. So for for example, if Donald Trump is the president and he starts the American Academy and he appoints someone as president who is into America and into the American culture and into the American, you know, greatness. OK, it’s good. The problem is, what if the Vast number of students sign up into it and they end up in the system and then someone loses an election and we end up with a real far left president and he takes that university where everybody’s existing and creates a mess. You know, part of me says ohh, this could be a real problem. Part of me says this could be, Lead us in a place that could, you know, to a place that could be worrisome. So it’s not entirely 100%. You know, the the I’m not entirely sold on it. I’m not entirely sold on the fact that there’s not some real. Some real challenges within the implementation.
But here’s what what you need to know. I think the best thing about this is it might just shatter the system. It might just shatter the system of of higher education, and if you could shatter the system of higher education where there was a series, not just one, but a series of American Academies or or or or like I just said, the Western Governors Association is a is an online nonprofit version, so you get the American Academy. That makes it totally clear. That you cannot distinguish from people that are taking their that are are taking their courses online. You have to accept them completely. Once you get that done, you shatter the system. Maybe that’s enough. You know, maybe that’s enough. Maybe that’s What we need to Have happen that we need that to shatter the system and then going forward you could still, you know, escape from any government-run entity that just that got sloppy and messy and end up in a different system. Maybe that’s the way it’s going. I
What I know is I have to say I hope we don’t have another Presidency. Where Republican or conservative wins. And they say they’re going to do something about education, and I’m going to get rid of the Department of Education and then nothing happens. Dramatically. We need to dramatically have some. This would be a dramatic shift if he could get it through. If Trump could get this passed, the Congress is gonna be congressional. I think it’s gotta be congressional. It’s gotta be an action of the legislature. It could be a, it could be a real game changer and a real positive thing. And and I think it’s worth, it’s worth paying a lot of attention to so. That’s the one. That’s what I’m excited about it. You watch the video of Donald Trump talking about it over on his website, and that’s pretty good, pretty great idea and great timing. I have to say for him to bring this up. So there you have it.
Alright. We’ll take a break and come right back. It’s Ed Martin here in the Pro America Report. Don’t, excuse me Ed Martin on The Pro America Report don’t forget, visit proamericareport.com. Be right back.
