Dismantling the Education Department

Around sixty days since Donald J. Trump took over as the 47th President of America, January 20, he has issued nearly 250 Executive Orders. One of these executive orders, dismantling of the Federal Department of Education, has drawn labyrinthine controversies and fierce criticism from academicians, politicians and the common people. It’s being questioned that while America being the richest, scientifically and technologically advanced nation, considering abolishing its Department of Education? Seems somewhat disingenuous!

America’s Department of Education was created in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, who had said: Primary responsibility for education should rest with those states, localities and private institutions that have made our nation’s educational system the best in the world, but the Federal government has far too long failed to play its own supporting role in education as effectively as it could. Instead of assisting school officials at the local level, it has too often added to their burden; instead setting up a strong administrative model, Federal structure has contributed to bureaucratic buck-passing; instead of stimulating needed debate of educational issues, Federal government has confused its role of junior partner in American education with that of a silent partner.

But the Trump administration, instead of working on the Carter model or improving upon it, Donald Trump government’s decision to abolish and dismantle the Federal Education Department, sounds less than prudent. Harsh. And perhaps, Guileful.

Now after almost 50 years, though America’s bestowed with well-endowed outstanding education and research institutions, such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc., doing away with an old, established education outfit like DOE would be improper. America’s eminent academics and scientists continue winning top laurels like maximum number Nobel Prizes year after year.

But, as the Trump administration has pointed out that with DOE’s current model, ‘the U.S. ranks 40th, the last, in the world in education among 40 developed countries while spending the most per pupil; however, ranking No.1 in one department: cost per student.’ It’s felt that DOE model is unbefitting, and it should go.

President Trump has said that…  ‘we (USA) spend more per pupil than any other country in the world; but we are ranked No. 40.’ However, it is learned the data quoted by Trump was not official; the education data found an average of $20,387 per year of federal, state and local spending. The amount is the third highest per pupil; the USA is not the last in any education statistic…In any case, the National Assessment of Educational Progress has found a decline in some areas. Therefore, through cuts at the Education Department, ‘they want to return the department back to the states, empower those closest to the people to make these very important decisions for our children’s lives. And… this is the first step in that process.’

Realistically, education is a local level-issue, the federal education department only administers roughly 10% of public funds nationwide. The Federal Department of Education does not administer curriculum or create lessons for the entire nation’s students. It also does not set requirements for enrollment and graduation or establish or accredit schools or universities. The curricula come from the states and local school districts. The education department does not teach the students to take standardized exams and assessments. The states already do. Schools are also responsible for other routine school-level procedures. It has been alleged that many staff were not doing good work…many of them not showing up to work; and ‘roughly half of the Education Department’s staff was being terminated, prompting as much alarm as it has uncertainty. The cut is a part of the planned shutdown, and virtual closure of the Department of Education.’

The records show that ‘no modern time presidents have ever tried to unilaterally shut down a federal (education) department … and federal lawmakers can only approve eliminating it.’  However, the government has pledged to follow what Congress (i.e., US parliament) requires. Meanwhile, the teachers’ union, American Federation of Teachers, has opposed it. Because closing the Federal Education Department would also ‘shrink’ the department’s size and discard some vital operations include: collecting data, overseeing special education, protecting civil rights and distributing funds. And dismantling DOE means that K-12 schools, which now receive $28 billion a year from Title 1 and the IDEA programmes $30 billion a year goes to low-income college students through Pell Grants, and $1.6 trillion allotted for students loans.

Meanwhile, the tide of opposition to Trump’s call for DOE abolition has been soaring day in and day out. The Democratic Party has said that doing away with DOE would ‘harm schools and disadvantage students, which the newly-appointed Education Secretary Linda McMahon also acknowledges: ‘it would require an act of Congress’ but has pointed out that Trump ‘doesn’t intend to eliminate all department programmes.’

Commenting upon the Trump administration’s resolve to terminate DOE, it’s observed that this move could have been induced by the fact that ‘private schools don’t benefit from DOE’s programmes, feels Kriss Davis, a former senior civil servant. He hopes that if DOE is eliminated the money could go as block grants to the states. In that case, some conservative states might funnel these dollars to private ‘for-profit’ schools, or religious schools. Which it can’t do now.

But the Trump administration is likely to have its way supported by a Republican majority Congress.