Of the multiple promises lowering the price of groceries – whereas others were semi-truthful declarations of his intentions. Included in the latter category, was his pledge to dismantle the Department of Education.
The President claims – much like he did with abortion rights – that his wish is to return the management of educational plans and policies to each state. In that event, Oklahoma, for instance, will be free to force the Bible into every classroom as is the Superintendent’s expressed desire.
While the Education Department cannot simply be abolished with the stroke of a pen – as there are checks and balances in place and Congress needs to approve the drastic measure – steps are being taken to completely tear it apart and diminish it to a virtually inconsequential statistics-gathering agency by the end of next year.
What Trump, Musk, and the rest of the MAGA clique want
The Executive Order “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” published on Jan. 29, states that it seeks to erode discrimination all the while scaling back most of the hard-fought anti-discrimination policies that were implemented to protect marginalized groups and minorities.
In the clip above, Trump says that the obliteration of the Department of Education would put American educational outcomes on par with those of Sweden and Denmark. Just like his initiative will not, unlike the above order claims, promote critical thinking, it will also not raise the bar to the exceptional level of Northern European countries. Trump fails to perceive – possibly on purpose – the precise characteristics that contribute to making these nations’ education systems worth emulating.
As per Elon Musk’s greedy hands have been all over “sensitive internal systems,” which includes the “financial aid dataset that contains the personal information for millions of students enrolled in the federal student aid program.”
As suspected even ahead of election day, Project 2025 has served as a blueprint for the Trump 2.0 agenda. In it, the authors’ views on the Department of Education and what should be done about it could not be any clearer:
“Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated. […] In our pluralistic society, families and students should be free to choose from a diverse set of school options and learning environments that best fit their needs. Our postsecondary institutions should also reflect such diversity, with room for not only “traditional” liberal arts colleges and research universities but also faith-based institutions, career schools, military academies, and lifelong learning programs”
It’s painfully ironic that the same people who see fit to limit “LGBTQ+” to “LGB” pretend to laud the value of pluralism and diversity in society.
What Trump truly wants has nothing to do with the rights and freedoms he claims to be protecting or the money he claims to be “saving” taxpayers. Maintaining the people ignorant helps an authoritarian government ensure that plans that ignore economic inequality and other social disparities remain unnoticed and unquestioned, all the while boasting to help the same people they are harming. So far, this strategy has borne fruits because confidence can make up for the truth to uneducated ears.
“It has been nothing but chaos” for school districts
While the President does not have the legislative power to abolish the department directly, he could lead to its downfall if Congress decides to have his back. Congress founded the Education Department in the late 1970s under President Jimmy Carter, and only Congress can approve its total demise. This would require the unlikely outcome of seven Democrats voting in favor.
Nevertheless, an order now in the works will demand that the department draft a legislative plan to propose to Congress, in addition to figuring out ways to reduce its employees and move some of its functions to other federal agencies, like the Department of Justice and the Treasury Department. In the meantime, as Sen. Heather Gustafson (D-FL) – a teacher herself – explains in the TikTok clip above, “it has been nothing but chaos” for school districts. The Republicans’ math does not add up, and these executive orders have only served “to dismantle an entire education budget” and make the future of American education more uncertain than ever.
None of this is about freedom. 14% of school districts’ funding comes from the federal government. In practical , Trump and his istration seek to get rid of Title I funding, which provides critical monetary aid to low-income K-12 schools. This, as Sen. Gustafson has warned, could result in further strains to education budgets, negatively impact millions of students, and exacerbate existing teacher shortages. Furthermore, the Education Department has also allocated $15.5 billion to students with disabilities, on top of overseeing the distribution of $1.6 trillion in student loans for higher education. All of this aid that benefits working-class families the most is now in peril.
“It has been nothing but chaos,” could also describe these past few weeks since Trump took office. However, make no mistake, this chaos has concrete political purposes: it confuses, disorients, and makes it harder to come up with countermeasures. This only means Democrats need to step up their game and keep fighting for those who will most suffer as a result of these initiatives. As for the rest of us, knowledge is power, awareness is strength, and the ability to tell the difference between truth and lie is utterly paramount.
Published: Feb 5, 2025 12:41 pm