If the Department of Education goes away, rich states can still spend lots of money on schools, but poor states might not have enough. That means some kids get great teachers, new books, and nice schools, while others don’t. The government helps make sure all kids have a fair chance, no matter where they live. Without it, some schools might get worse, and some kids might not get the help they need to learn.
Propublica investigation of Alaska ignoring school funding requests for over 20 years
Unfortunately we can see what is to come with state funding education departments separately. Propublica found Alaska’s state gov. ignoring hundreds of requests spanning more than 25 years for primarily rural schools (aka typically poor or Native American/a minority). It bad enough the school buildings are condemned…
It’s a move to segregate the schools once again both by race and wealth. The rich + white kids will have private schools paid for by everyone. The poor and/or non-white kids will have churches pretending to be schools. Anyone with any kind of disability won’t have school at all.
There’s no benefit for the common person, only downsides, and America as a whole is gonna get stupider. Rich people like it because it makes them richer, religious zealots like it because they get to push their indoctrination schools, and conservatives like it because conservatism goes up when education goes down. Rich people avoid most of it because they can afford private schooling and have legacy admission on their side
Eventually, i imagine it might lead other countries to not recognize degrees or other credentials earned in the US
I’m honestly surprised that isn’t already the case. The first year of college 101 courses in America are often just rehashes of high school. Because the American high schools are so inconsistent, that the university wants all of their incoming students to at least have the same baseline. I went to a decent high school so it was 100% repeated content for me. If given the option, I could have skipped the entire first year of classes. But I had a shocking number of classmates who apparently had never seen anything past basic quadratic equations before.
America as a whole is gonna get stupider
God, I’m not sure the world will be ready for even higher levels of American ignorance
There is no benefit. The downside is republicans will infect religion into school, use tax funds for private schools, and public school will be privatized and will cost 3-4x more, free lunches won’t be a thing. Families with hardships won’t be able to afford to put their kids into a basic public school.
This is all part of the push to eliminate public education and replace it with private education funded by tax payer money but without all the oversight and regulation. Expect what has happened with charter schools but 10x.
Funding. Funding for people with special needs. Funding for schools in disadvantaged areas. Funding that pays for teachers and teachers aids who help teachers do their jobs.
As someone else said they are making public education shit so two things happen. First the folks who own private schools get richer, second poor people have yet another disadvantage and as second class citizens, will be more inclined to let the rich fuck them over so they can survive.
What is the bennefit of the Dept of Education shutting down
Inconsistent learning goals. Kids not held back when goals are missed. States not held accountable when kids spell ‘benefit’ with an extra N.
😂
I think it helps going to the source material on this. Most of the administration’s moves have been pretty aligned with Project 2025, and it’s written in an accessible enough way:
Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated. When power is exercised, it should empower students and families, not government. In our pluralistic society, families and students should be free to choose from a diverse set of school options and learning environments that best fit their needs. Our postsecondary institutions should also reflect such diversity, with room for not only “traditional” liberal arts colleges and research universities but also faith-based institutions, career schools, military academies, and lifelong learning programs.
I don’t think it’s in the administration’s interest to make this seem like a prepared plan and part of an ultimately elitist philosophy, but if they actually explained it they would probably say that education should be subject to competition like other markets should be, with limited federal funding to states for excess expenditure, with the intention that education improves according to local (Christian) culture and parental involvement. The Department of Education currently tries to maintain federal standards for (more equitable) schooling, which is too general and prescriptive in this approach.
Probably not an ELI5 answer exactly, and I’m definitely not intending it as a supporting argument for this policy (it’s very elitist and inequitable), but just wanted to share that at least there is written material that outlines some of this.
There’s absolutely NO DOWNSIDE to Republican States Defunding EVERY SCHOOL except Bible Camp! That will make Republican State Workers VERY Hireable!
You know that we have boldface and italics for a reason, right? When you use caps for emphasis, it just makes you look like some unhinged dude shouting random words on a street corner.
