Trump Defunds Department of Education
On Thursday, March 20, President Trump, accompanied by a group of schoolchildren seated at prop desks, signed an executive order effectively crippling the Department of Education. This scene is intended to convey that this order will give access to quality education for all American children by returning the authority of education over to the states, but states already have control over students’ education.
The DOE does not set curriculum. It funds low-income schools and special education services, manages student loans, and collects and analyzes student data. Trump claims that these functions will just be reassigned to other agencies: student loans will go to the Small Business Administration and special education will be assigned to Health and Human Services. Neither of these agencies have experience managing education programs.
The problem with simply redistributing the functions of the DOE is that these programs don’t just handle funding. They also deal with issues like running FAFSA (which provides student loans to millions of people across the country), handling Individual Education Plans (IEPs), and various other specialized functions that these other agencies are not equipped to handle. Before the DOE existed, students and schools (especially those in black and brown communities) fell through the cracks, and without the DOE, it’s very likely they will, again, be left behind.
The “school choice” programs, that conservatives tout as the solution, only serve to benefit wealthy families who were already paying for private schools, leaving behind low-income, disabled, and minority students in public schools surviving on now anemic budgets.
Trump claims that the DOE is responsible for pushing a “Marxist” agenda through the teaching of “woke” Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the nebulous bogeyman “gender ideology.” Their use of conservative catch phrases like “woke ideology” and “school choice” reveal the true nature of this order.
The capitalist ruling class has always been afraid of an educated working class. In 1970, Ronald Reagan’s advisor Roger Freeman defended shutting down college campuses in response to anti-war protests by proclaiming: “We are in danger of producing an educated proletariat. That's dynamite! We have to be selective on who we allow to go [to college].”
Even though the DOE cannot be fully dismantled by executive order, Trump can still deprive it of the resources it needs to function effectively. Several Republican members of Congress have promised to — or have already — introduced bills to abolish the Department completely.
The Trump administration has always intended to reduce learning opportunities for the working class by privatizing education and making it available only to those who can pay for it. We must call this order what it is: a fascist attack on the poorest, most disabled and marginalized groups of the working class to keep them impoverished, immiserated, and vulnerable to exploitation.
We must fight for the freedom of the working class to access higher education without the burden of crushing debt and financial ruin. We must fight for the futures of all children, no matter their socioeconomic status, race, gender, or ability.