The Trump administration says its plan to dismantle the Education Department offers a fix for the nation’s lagging academics — a solution that could free schools from the strictures of federal influence.
Yet to some school and state officials, the plan appears to add more bureaucracy, with no clear benefit for students who struggle with math or reading.
Instead of being housed in a single agency, much of the Education Department’s work now will be spread across four other federal departments. For Donald Trump, it’s a step toward fully closing the department and giving states more power over schooling. Yet many states say it will complicate their role as intermediaries between local schools and the federal government.
This is a pretty obtuse take on the Department of Education. When “massive cuts” equaling close to half of those who manage student loans within the department is less than 5000 people, you’re already looking at a starved and underfunded program. The DoE has been the punching bag of anti-intellectualism for decades. Of course there are much needed improvements to make for better efficacy. However, dismantling and fracturing it entirely, forcing state-run public education administrations to scramble around to various departments to secure funding, recategorizing professional degrees to invalidate loan programs, wiping other programs out entirely that fight food insecurity…the list can go on… These are not improvements to the current state of education.
This is intentionally removing one of the most important resources for social and financial mobility by fragmenting the foundation of education. We should be embarrassed.