Surrounded by elementary school students, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 20 calling for the elimination of the Department of Education (DOE) – a goal the Republican Party has had since the Reagan administration.
“Today we take a very historic action that was 45 years in the making…I will sign an executive order to begin eliminating the federal Department of Education once and for all,” Trump said in a press conference before signing the order.
The DOE was created in 1979 and its main role was to help with financial issues like giving funding to public elementary, middle and high schools or giving loans and Pell Grants to colleges and universities. It also helps prevent discrimination in schools for a fair learning environment, while local districts handle the specific curriculum.
The order comes after the agency’s newest secretary of education, Linda McMahon, told employees to prepare for the “final mission.”
“We must start thinking about our final mission at the department as an overhaul,” McMahon said.
Advocates for public schools, like the NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson, say that this decision would leave children without a quality education and create unequal educational opportunities for students based on individual school districts. Johnson took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to voice concerns beyond what the dismantling of the department does for public education..
“This is a dark day for the millions of American children who depend on federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor and rural communities with parents who voted for Trump,” Johnson posted on X.
Johnson feels that this goes beyond public schools; it affects the values and traditions of the American political system.
“He is deliberately dismantling the basic functions of our democracy, one piece at a time,” Johnson added.
State and local advocacy groups have already taken actions, urging political leaders and citizens to be concerned. In Kentucky, Protect Our Schools KY is a coalition that’s dedicated to advancing bold visions for Kentucky public schools.
According to the group, the dismantling of the DOE will result in few teachers, loss of special education support, reduced after-school programs and possible loss of opportunities for students.
“Federal funding is vital in ensuring that Kentucky’s students have access to a quality education,” Protect Our Schools KY said in a statement following the executive order. “This move to reduce critical funding streams that ensure all students, regardless of zip code or income, have access to the resources they need to thrive could cause sweeping harm across the Commonwealth.”
Trump and his administration don’t have the authority to completely eliminate the DOE; that would require Congressional action, but he can severely weaken its role and duties as was his goal from the start.
“We are going to close the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. and send it back to the states, where it belongs, and let the States run our educational system as it should be run,” according to Trump’s Agenda 47.
