– We must produce students who can be rivals with Norway. The American election campaign is underway. Donald Trump is currently traveling around the United States and giving long speeches to his constituents. He juggles a busy schedule with legal meetings and election campaigns. What policy he stands for election with usually does not get much attention. Rather, it does the four criminal cases he is in the middle of. On Saturday, the former president gave a long speech at a conference in Washington, organized by Faith and Freedom, a coalition of Christian conservatives in the USA. Then he asked Christian voters to vote for him. – There is something Fidel Castro-like about the way he can stand and talk in the wee hours. Trump’s speeches are a mixture of talk shows, stand-up and macho talk, says political science professor Hilmar Mjelde. The campaign meeting is pure political entertainment for many, says Mjelde. But one thing caught the Norwegian ear’s attention during Saturday’s speech. There are close races between the presidential candidates during the autumn elections. Photo: SAMUEL CORUM / AFP – They don’t have a welfare state to talk about if the US spends too much money on the school system was one of the messages of the 78-year-old. – We are at the bottom when it comes to abilities per pupil on almost all lists. And we spend more money per pupil than any other country in the world. Therefore, Trump, if he becomes president, will halve the expenses of the school system. – What the hell do we have to lose, Trump asked the cheering crowd. Hilmar Mjelde is professor of political science at the University of Western Norway. According to Mjelde, school policy has been important in some state elections, with the theme then being the so-called “culture war”, i.e. whether race and sexual minorities should be taught in school. But usually this has not been important in a presidential election, and certainly not this year either. – US presidential elections have traditionally only been about the economy, because the US has no welfare state to speak of, says the professor. Cutting school spending in half, Trump believes, will be a recipe for success. – It will be beautiful. It will be like Norway. – I would say that forty of the states will do much better. I bet thirty of the states will be phenomenal. It will be beautiful. It will be like Norway: – You know, Norway has a great education system. Denmark and China also cite the former president as good examples. According to the latest figures from the OECD, 6.8 percent of GDP was spent on education in Norway in 2022, then 6.5 of that was from the public sector. In the same year, 6.1 per cent of GDP was spent on education in the USA, and 4.2 per cent of that was public expenditure. In 2020, the USA spent more money per pupil than Norway, figures from the OECD show. So if Trump wants to save money, Norway is not the most affordable education system to look at. During his speech, Trump told how he will put two people on the case and make sure that the students learn a little English and the rest common sense. – We will save a fortune and produce incredible students who can be rivals with Norway, Denmark and all these places. Donald Trump showed off Tic Tacs when he talked about inflation during his speech. Photo: Evelyn Hockstein / Reuters Expensive prices and chaos on the Mexican border It is less than five months until Americans go to the polls. Although Trump spent time talking about school policy at the weekend, Mjelde does not think that this will be important during the election campaign. – The election’s most important issues are high prices in the shops and the chaos on the Mexican border. These are also the issues on which voters have the most confidence in Trump. The election campaign this year reminds a lot of the 2016 election campaign. Trump is the outsider and the law-and-order candidate who will bring order to the country, says Mjelde. Later this week, Donald Trump and President Joe Biden will meet in their first live debate. This will be the first debate between a sitting and a former president. – Trump is very good in debates. It was there that he trampled his opponents in the 2016 election. The debates are mostly political entertainment. Hear more about this in the Urix podcast: Published 24.06.2024, at 22.34
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