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Since the election, there’s been a lot of buzz about Trump’s stated plan to shut down the Department of Education. With the introduction of Senate Bill 5384 last month, that plan has come closer to reality.

Eliminating the DOE is something conservatives have wanted to do for a long time—and have even tried before—which makes me think the department must be pretty dang important. Similar to voting rights, if the DOE didn’t matter, why would they be trying so hard to get rid of it?

What’s Going On With The DOE?

In case you’ve been distracted by, I don’t know, the 7000 other attacks on our democratic institutions, Trump has promised to shut down the DOE “very early” in his administration. It’s a move that’s popular with his base, who accuse the department of enforcing a “woke” curriculum that indoctrinates children with Critical Race Theory and anti-American, anti-Christian, pro-transgender propaganda.

While the Department of Education does not in fact oversee and implement curricula, its three main functions are:

1. Disbursement of Title 1 and special education funds,

2. Enforcement of Civil Rights laws, and

3. Administering of the federal student loan program.

Basically, the DOE does things that are expensive (educating students with special needs and low-income students) and inconvenient (telling institutions they can’t violate students’ civil rights). The Fucking News offers a compelling if admittedly left-leaning (falling over?) overview of the DOE’s history, including its short-lived inception during Reconstruction as a means to force the South to educate both freed slaves and poor whites. Recommended reading!

Many sources state that a total elimination of the DOE would be difficult to achieve, considering how unpopular the idea is among voters and how poorly school choice performed on recent ballots. There’s also the problem of Trump’s confounding contradictions around the regulation of curricula (which, again, the DOE doesn’t actually oversee), striving to simultaneously eliminate “woke” curriculum and enforce a “patriotic education.”

While perhaps unlikely, it’s still useful to dig into the debates around the dismantling of the DOE. One reason: when Trump says he’s going to do something, it doesn’t hurt to believe him. I don’t think anyone thought he’d separate undocumented children from their parents or put in motion the vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Second, there are plenty of ways to effectively eliminate the DOE without officially doing so. Remember how Public Service Loan Forgiveness essentially didn’t exist during the first Trump administration? Delving into a discussion around the key functions of the DOE reveals which parts of our education system may be vulnerable and targeted for weakening.

Third, as the Washington Post’s Laura Meckler says, even talking about ending the DOE at this level sends a big message: education is on the chopping block. So those of us who believe in public education need to have an equally loud conversation about the importance of the DOE and ensuring equal opportunity for our most vulnerable students.

The DOE Is Already Failing: The Argument To Eliminate

Since the DOE doesn’t actually regulate school curricula or the hiring and firing of teachers, I’m not going to wade into the culture-war arguments.

One main real argument for eliminating the DOE is a perceived low return on investment. As columnist Ingrid Jacques argues in USA Today, despite spending billions of dollars a year, the DOE has done little to improve test scores or raise reading levels. To support her argument, she interviews no other than former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who… well, I won’t even start.

The Heritage Foundation (you know, the group that authored Project 2025) adds that the DOE has failed to live up to its other promises of student loan relief (RIP) and redefining “sex” as “gender identity,” and has massively bungled the FAFSA process. They fail to mention that the reason student loan relief and gender redefinition have failed isn’t due to incompetence but to efforts of conservative groups like their own. The FAFSA thing was kinda a disaster.

On the surface, the return on investment seems to be a fair argument. Similar to healthcare, the US spends more than other OECD countries on education and gets worse outcomes.

But I’d counter that no educational reform in our country has really produced widespread positive results. In her 2014 book The Teacher Wars, Dana Goldstein details how the various reform attempts over public education’s near-200-year history, from merit pay to standardized testing, have largely failed. While the DOE isn’t a reform, per se, it was an effort to improve public education, and we simply don’t do that well in this country.

This isn’t because no one knows how to run an effective school system. OECD countries with highly effective education systems, such as Estonia, Finland and Japan, share similar features, including high levels of teacher training, autonomy and pay. Go figure!

Looking at the history, you’d almost think that America doesn’t actually want a highly effective education system—or a highly educated populace. It’s almost as if our economic system depends on maintaining an underclass through ignorance and oppression.

Education writer Laura McKenna makes the important point that the DOE already underfunds special education services and with years-long wait times, effectively doesn’t prosecute discrimination complaints. Well-resourced parents already hire lawyers and advocates because the DOE does so little to ensure appropriate services. She writes:

As both a teacher and a parent of a child with special needs, I can attest that this is largely true. But shouldn’t this be an argument to reform and expand the DOE’s funding and enforcement mechanisms? If one of the DOE’s functional roles is to enforce IDEA, then the elimination of the DOE would likely lead to less, if any, regulation, senior lecturer at Columbia University’s Teachers College Amanda Levin Mazin argues on Disability Scoop. 

Kicking the can to the states will only deepen existing inequities, many of which are already location-based. It’s well-known among caregivers of kids with disabilities, for instance, that Florida is one of the worst states to get your kid services, while New York and California are some of the best.

To anyone who knows our nation’s history (which people in many states don't!), this shouldn’t come as a surprise. “States’ rights” have often been code for states’ rights to oppress certain groups of people. New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie writes:

Take the often-floated argument that the Civil War wasn’t really fought over slavery but rather states’ rights—but their right to do what exactly? Enslave human beings for profit. It took the federal government’s passage of the Civil Rights Act to end Jim Crow laws. We literally didn’t have accessible bathroom stalls or IEPs until the signing of the Americans With Disabilities Act. And of course, what happened with the recent Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade? Abortion rights got kicked back to the state level, and millions of Americans lost the right to bodily autonomy.

One final argument in favor of elimination is that the DOE is unconstitutional. Indeed, the Constitution doesn’t mention anything about education, which wasn’t considered to be a function of government at the time of writing. Some conservative thinkers go further, saying that all of the department’s programs and functions are unconstitutional. I’m not a legal scholar, so I’ll leave this one on the debate table.

There are a good number of writers out there telling everyone to calm down, that shutting down the DOE isn’t the end of the world. I will note that every. single. one. of these voices, as well as the outright pro-elimination ones, come from… wait for it… white people. Here again, we brush up against my bias: whenever a bunch of white people are clamoring for anything other than John Fogerty tunes and NPR tote bags, I grow suspicious. We don’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to advocating for, even considering, the rights and opportunities of people who don’t look like us.

The DOE Funds And Enforces Equity: The Anti-Elimination Argument

The arguments against eliminating the DOE abound in major media outlets (many of which I’ve already linked to).

To bring in some other voices, Cripple Media’s Isabel Mavrides-Calderón breaks down possible impacts on K-12 students with disabilities in this Instagram video (which must be on 1.5 speed or else, good God, I am middle-aged), including decreased access to PT and OT services, as well as assistive technology like AAC speech devices.

While some argue that redistributing IDEA funding through other agencies wouldn’t change much (omg, it’s another white guy!), writer Courtney Waller breaks down how block grants would inevitably lead to inequality within special education:

Black Lives Matter’s Cecily Gay talks about the potential impacts of dismantling the DOE on black students, highlighting the essential role the federal government has played in ensuring the education of black children. She also points out that while reallocating DOE funds into state block grants “might sound reasonable, history tells us that it would create massive disparities.”

Over at Mother Jones, reporter Hannah Levintova parses out how eliminating the DOE would decimate college affordability for low-income students by ending Public Service Loan Forgiveness and reducing funding for Pell Grants.

Of course, what hurts students hurts teachers. The Center For American Progress found that ending Title I funding would worsen teacher shortages by eliminating 6% of the workforce. Tuan Nguyen, an associate professor at the University of Missouri, worries that without a DOE, standards for special education teachers would be out of the window. He writes:

So What The F*ck Do We Do?!

Great question! Even if a full closure of the DOE is unlikely, what is very likely is that the department will be significantly weakened, vital funding will be cut and students will be harmed. So let’s get to work!

Contact Your Representatives

Call, write or email your Senators and representatives to let them know you oppose Senate Bill 5834.

Even if you live in a progressive state, contact your state and local officials, as well as your local school board representatives, and ask them how they are planning for a reduction in educational funding or regulation. California lawmakers are already game-planning to “Trump-proof” California; make sure preserving Title I and special education funding is part of those plans.

Connect With Advocacy Groups

Courtney Waller recommends, “If you are worried about your children’s education, link up with a support group or disability rights group, who are committed to the issue. The Arc, Disability Rights and the National Disability Rights Network are all great options.”

Cicley Gay recommends connecting with local Black advocacy groups. Nationally, check out Black Youth Project 100 or Black Lives Matter.

Depending on where you live, your local teacher union may be a good place to connect with and advocate for teachers and students. (Shout out, UTLA!)

Get Loud

Post about this topic, share videos and articles, talk about it IRL. There’s A LOT going on and it’s impossible to be up-to-speed on every bizarre and unsettling development. Since education is near and dear to my heart, I’ve decided to make this the area where I stay informed and can talk to other people about what’s going on.

Got other ideas? Drop them in the comments.

Don’t Despair—Get Ready!

Remember, organizing and fighting is pretty much the only way we’ve gotten anything good in this country. From the eight-hour workday to accessible parking spaces to the right to drink out of the same water fountains, people have literally had to put their lives on the line to ensure we all get access to the American Dream.

So buckle up.

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