Department of Education: Do We Need It?

Public education is a cornerstone of our democracy. It’s universally accessible to everyone. Every child in America has the right and freedom to the opportunity for an education to create a better life.

This right and freedom has been under attack for years. Armed with Project 2025 Trump has turned his tiny little hands to dismantling and shutting down the Department of Education, a promise he made on the campaign trail. 

He appointed WWE co-founder Linda McMahon to serve as Secretary of Education. He has tasked her with shutting down this department. 

As of March 20, she has fired half the staff in one swell swoop and we expect that Trump will be signing the executive order to officially shut down the department sometime today. 

However, Trump is notorious for saying one thing and doing another. Will he officially shut down this department?

I think so.

He campaigned on it.

His supporters expect it.

His BIG donors demand it.

Project 2025 calls for its destruction. 

Trump technically does not have the power to shut down any federal department. Only Congress can do that.

But somewhere along the way Congress lost their spine and show no sign of standing up to Trump.

Perhaps out of fear of retaliation from America’s new dictator who has shown no regard to our laws or constitution or perhaps they are complicit to the right-wing ideology.

Unless Congress suddenly grows a spine and does its job I can not see anything preventing Trump from shutting down this department or at the very least crippling it to the point it can’t function.

However, we will wait and see. 

In the meantime let me offer to you why this is a bad idea! 

Why do we need the Department of Education?

To truly understand the purpose of the Department of Education you have to understand what schools were like before this department existed.

In the early years of our country only the wealthy could afford an education. It often consisted of private tutors and/or a private boarding school.

Wealthy families of that time were white and often chose to only provide their sons with an education.

It was believed that women were second class citizens and did not need an education since they were considered property. 

Then our country started offering a public education to families that could not afford a private education. It was limited at best and most rural areas did not have the means to support a school. 

The “schoolhouse” was quite often one room and students spanned a wide age range. 

Black and native American children were not allowed to attend these schools. 

Many native American children were forcibly separated from their families and sent to boarding schools called “Indian schools” where they were “re-educated” and had their cultural heritage erased.

These “Indian schools” were rife with abuse. Over 3000 children that we know of died while attending these schools. 

Black children were not allowed to attend public schools due to “anti-literacy laws”.

These laws were found in many states, especially in the south.  They were put in place to make it illegal for any “enslaved or freed black child” to learn to read. 

It wasn’t until the end of the Civil War that black children were allowed to attend a public school.

However, new laws were written to make it illegal for black children to attend school with white children.

Schools became segregated and the black schools were not equally funded. They were given a lower quality of education and rarely had instructional materials. 

In 1896 the United States Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v Ferguson that allowed “equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races”.

This is where we got the infamous phrase “separate but equal”.   

In 1954 SCOTUS ruled in Brown vs Board of Education Topeka. This ruling ended racial segregation. 

In 1960 a six year old black child named Ruby Bridges bravely walked into an all white elementary school.

She was surrounded by an angry white mob yelling at her. U.S. Marshalls from the federal government were sent to protect her.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s many education laws were passed to improve public education.

For example the Head Start program to support children in poverty.

Title IX (9). Title IX prohibits gender discrimination in public education. Remember women used to be denied an education based on their gender.

Thanks to Title IX women now have the right to an education.

In 1986, I was the first in my mother’s family to go to college. There were some of my male relatives that were not pleased about that and called me a communist.

I went on to earn three college degrees blazing the trail for my younger cousins.  

In 1979 President Jimmy Carter and Congress created the Department of Education. 

The main purpose is to make sure that all children including children with disabilities have access to a quality education.  

That’s it. 

This department exists to make sure laws are being followed, no civil rights are being violated, and that our most vulnerable children’s needs are being met. 

How much money do schools get from the Department of Education?

On average about 15% of a typical school’s budget comes from the federal level. The funding is needs based so some schools may receive as much as 75% of its funding from the Department of Education. 

In North Carolina it’s about 15%. 60% from the state, 20-25% from local and the remaining 15-20% comes from federal. 

In addition to the above there is federal funding that supports the Arts in schools. Through the Department of Education is the Assistance for Arts Education program (AAE). It is a grant that provides support to the arts in education.

 As an art teacher, I have been a recipient of this grant on multiple occasions in my 21 years.   

The Department of Education also oversees grants and student loans to help students attend college. If you received a Pell Grant when you went to college then you benefited from this department.

Without the Department of Education these grants will most likely disappear.

So what’s the argument for getting rid of the Department of Education?

Trump calls it a “big con job’. Fitting coming from  “Don the Con”; one of the many unflattering nicknames given to America’s first felon to be elected President.

Some on the right argue that it’s too expensive and is bloated with useless bureaucrats. 

In 2024 the Department of Education’s budget was $268 billion. That does sound like a lot, however it’s only 4% of the total federal budget.

 4%! 

Are America’s children not worthy of 4%?

The Department of Education only has about 4000 employees.

Well, actually in the wake of the mass layoffs last week it’s down to about 2000. That’s really not a lot when you compare it to the 700,000+ employees in the Department of Defense. 

DEI or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has been cited as a reason to shut down this department.  

Which are they actually against? 

Diversity? Remember schools used to be all white and predominantly male.

Equity? Remember schools used to be segregated and were “separate but equal”. 

Inclusion? Who’s for EXclusion? Oh wait …the people screaming at 6 year old Ruby Bridges, some of whom are still alive today.

The fact is some people simply do not believe that all children should be educated. 

We’ve heard that shutting down the Department of Education would return power to the states. Well…..the states do have the power. They always have. 

The state legislature in each state oversees and manages the public education system. 

They have control over teacher salaries, curriculum, funding, school calendars, operating hours and setting laws and policies governing the public schools in their state. 

Eliminating the Department of Education does NOT give the states any more power than they already have. 

Trump touts “school choice” as a reason for shutting down the Department of Education.

The reality of school choice is that it gives schools, not families choice.

It gives schools the choice to exclude certain students based on religion, race, social class or disability. To be able to exclude you must get rid of the idea of include….i.e. bye-bye DEI.

Parents and guardians already have the right and freedom to choose where to send their children to school. They can freely choose public, charter, private, or homeschool.

They have always had these choices and no one is trying to take these choices away. 

Shutting down the Department of Education will not give parents any other choices from what they already have. 

There is simply is no reasonable reason to shut this department down.

There are real problems facing public education in America, but shutting down or even reducing the Department of Education will NOT solve these problems.

Without federal funding low income and rural school systems would struggle to stay open. Many disabled students would not have access to special education. 

IDEA (Individual with Disabilities Education Act) which Linda McMahon in a Fox interview did not know what IDEA stood for, but she thinks we should get rid of it.

 IDEA is the main focus of the Department of Education. Prior to the formation of this department only 1 out of 5 students with disabilities received an education. 

Today as a result of the Department of Education 15% of children educated have a disability.

Eliminating this department you’re basically saying that 15% of America’s children don’t matter. 

I disagree! ALL children matter!

We can not educate ALL students without the Department of Education.