OPINION: The new administration could be on the verge of destroying public education as we know it
Incoming president-elect Donald Trump is suggesting vast changes in how our country will operate going forward. Here are a few: The U.S. should take back the Panama Canal, purchase Greenland and make Canada the 51st state. He said all of this on the same day. The list from members of his inner circle includes: Major […] The post OPINION: The new administration could be on the verge of destroying public education as we know it appeared first on The Hechinger Report.
Incoming president-elect Donald Trump is suggesting vast changes in how our country will operate going forward. Here are a few: The U.S. should take back the Panama Canal, purchase Greenland and make Canada the 51st state. He said all of this on the same day.
The list from members of his inner circle includes: Major corporate tax cuts. Shaving the size of the U.S. government. Ending actions to avert climate change. Dismantling or severely cutting the Affordable Care Act, Head Start and SNAP benefits for low-income families.
Further down, but very important to his list, is eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and putting an end to any federal role in education by returning all governance and funding to the states. This position is based on his view that states know best what to do regarding education and that federal involvement in it should simply end once he gets into office.
For many of us engaged in education, this potential major policy change would be incredibly serious, have huge implications and worsen outcomes for millions of students.
The federal role in education essentially began to deepen in the 1950s under Republican President Eisenhower. Soviet leadership in the space race led to a federal focus on science and math education — U.S. students were lagging behind, and the states were not responding effectively. The federal role expanded further in the 1960s to support a much-needed focus on equity. In the 1970s, during the Carter administration, the separate cabinet-level Department of Education was established to raise U.S. education standards. Turning the clock back to a time when there was no federal role in education whatsoever would be a huge mistake.
In large measure, our states still play a significant role in education via funding and governance, but before the federal role was cemented, the states were essentially in charge. They could and did decide that schools did not have to admit or even serve students with a range of health and education challenges. And they could and did determine in some states that schools would be racially segregated.
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This prompts the obvious questions: If the goal of the next administration is to “make America great again,” how great were our schools back then? Do we want to return to that structure?
Overall, prior to the enhanced federal involvement, a range of state policies essentially denied public education to millions of students, especially in the South. But, beginning in the mid-1970s, to receive federal funding, states had to comply with federal policies that required them to serve all students, and while they were still very much in charge of how they would do that, under federal engagement, they could not refuse access.
And while it was the Supreme Court that ruled in 1954 that schools could not be segregated by race, it wasn’t until the creation of the U.S. Department of Education that the federal government began to oversee state actions to achieve parity through its civil rights divisions, making sure that states complied with that ruling.
Ending a federal role in education would accelerate other policy shifts we are already starting to see. Some states are already making the Bible part of their curriculum. Some states are already refusing to address race, gender or other disparities; are eliminating teaching about slavery or antisemitism; and are banning many canonical books.
Another consequence of ending the Department of Education could be the creation of a wide system of school vouchers, giving parents a chance to use them for private or parochial schools. Such a system is often referred to as “school choice,” but it would limit the choice of those families left behind and strip public schools of funding.
Under such a system, tens of millions of public dollars would be taken from public education to support private education. The students and teachers left behind would get the “short end of the stick,” and schools across the U.S. would be transformed, perhaps no longer able to fund a full day of education.
On the higher education level, less federal control and more state control and a movement toward vouchers would have a similar effect. Students could use vouchers to pay tuition costs at private and parochial colleges and universities, leaving public institutions bereft.
As public universities fought for funds, students could see Bible study becoming part of general education requirements, diversity efforts based on race and gender entirely prohibited and courses like sociology and archeology eliminated.
Related: What might happen if the Education Department were closed?
Taken together, the impact on schools, from kindergarten to graduate studies, would be devastating. We would essentially be destroying American public education. And the risks would extend beyond education, as lower college completion rates would harm employers who depend on talent to grow their businesses, especially in industries where the labor market is booming — such as in semiconductors, health care and information technology.
This is why so many in the education community are terrified. Our U.S. education system is far from perfect. It absolutely needs change, including the creation of more effective pathways for many more students from school to college to career. But leaving education entirely to the states won’t fix the problems we have.
The threat that President Trump’s ideas pose to public education is real, and failure to oppose the changes he wants to make is simply unacceptable.
Stanley Litow served as deputy chancellor of schools for New York City and as president of the IBM Foundation. He is now an adjunct professor at Columbia University and co-author of “Breaking Barriers: How P-TECH Schools Create a Pathway from High School to College to Career.”
Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.
This story about preserving the Department of Education was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.
The post OPINION: The new administration could be on the verge of destroying public education as we know it appeared first on The Hechinger Report.
