Trump has signed an executive order which aims to dismantle the Department of Education. He argues the department perpetrates a ‘woke’ agenda, an unnecessary element that pushes an indoctrination on our children’s minds. This is something that I disagree with, and I believe that dismantling the Department of Education will only harm America’s education.
Many of the policies and laws revolving around education is in the hands of the state and the district. The federal level is not in charge of much of the curriculum that happens in school. If one has any issue with what is being taught in schools you need to take it up with the district-state-county, whatever, not the Department. One of the main pillars for the Department’s dismantlement is not rooted in reality.
Many of the other reasons for the Department’s closing is not valid in my opinion. It promotes anti-American rhetoric, it’s useless, it’s government waste, rich politicians are spewing these reasons with a disconnect from the American people that the department serves, and it shows. No school I have been to has promoted anti-American rhetoric, nor have I personally known any cases of it. Besides anti-American rhetoric operates on a more micro level with states and districts, not federally. The Department is not useless or a product of government waste, and anybody who says is detached from the reality many Americans face. The department funds and distributes funds to lower-income schools, gives aid to schools with lower-income students and disabled students, and funds to the public schooling of poorer states. The Department funds states like Mississippi with 20% of the Mississippi school district costs being from the Department of Education. The Department also enforces discrimination laws and civil rights among students, and much of the funding to lower-income students is to African-Americans and Latinos, who make up the majority of lower-income students. The benefits of the Department are not useless or waste, but pivotal in helping America have equality in our future generations and the current presence.
The Department of Education also funds buses to rural students, to students learning English (something the Trump administration supposedly wants), it funds to students who need further academic support. If you were to remove the Department, you’ll remove the bases and financial support for millions of American children who simply want to pursue education even if they dont fit the demographics that Trump wants. The department also gives funding to helping kids with their college funding. If you remove the Department, millions of our future workforce will be burdened by student loans because they weren’t born rich enough to afford college, or where not able to pursue college altogether because they do not have the access now due to lack of funding.
The dissolvement of the Department of Education erodes civil rights and class equality present in education, it removes support for disabled, multilingual, and millions of other American children. The destruction of the Department of Education is a scary forewarning for the future of civil rights, equality in class, and numerous other challenges Americans face. We need the Department to strengthen and enforce protections for minority students, in race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, or other. We need the Department to try to heal the wedge of wealth distribution in the country. Removing the Department strips us of a nation that educates every American, not just specific demographics, and these detriments of its removal should not be hidden under the veil giving power to states and districts who already have most of the power.
