In a deeply unpopular move, Trump has moved to eliminate the Department of Education (DOE). Unlike the tens of thousands of fired federal workers who were recently rehired in the chaotic DOGE cuts, it doesn’t seem like the DOE workers are going to be invited back.
This comes a week after the Trump administration began gutting the DOE through discriminatory firings, with over 1,300 workers fired last Tuesday and another 600 leaving through separation packages or probationary firings.
The total elimination of the Department would require approval from Congress, which is controlled by Republicans. However, if a supermajority is needed in the Senate, at least seven Democrats would need to vote in favor of eliminating it.
In an absurd scene, Trump, surrounded by schoolchildren sitting in desks writing letters thanking Trump for his support to Israel, signed an executive order directing the Education Secretary “to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the states.”
Trump said he appointed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, the former WWE CEO, to “put [herself] out of a job.” The same day she was confirmed on March 3, she sent out the agency’s “final mission” — to “restore the rightful role of state oversight in education and to end the overreach from Washington.”
“Return Education to the States”: A Veil for More Inequity & Privatization
At the signing of the executive order to eliminate the Department, McMahon said, “[Trump and I] both believe very much that education should be tailored to communities, that parents should have involvement, that local superintendents are the ones working with our teachers with full transparency of what education curriculum should be.”
But states already control standards and assessments. States, localities, and individual schools determine curriculum, discipline, and other policies. And the DOE has no mechanisms to limit parental involvement. So what is there to return?
In reality, “returning education to the states” is nothing but a euphemism for attacking civil rights, escalating inequity, and harming the most vulnerable. It means widening the already open flood-gates for privatization of the most basic public services and institutions. It’s an empty promise to conservative Americans to “democratize” education while hurting all kids in the process.
The vast majority of an average public school’s budget comes from state and local funding sources. But these taxes are deeply inequitable. Property tax-based education means districts with higher property values (wealthier areas) have more money to invest in education. Even when states have funding formulas to reduce these inequities, families in wealthy districts are able to raise millions for programs, equipment, and opportunities that students in low-income areas have no access to. This was exemplified in a viral TikTok video of Carmel High School students showing off their sprawling school’s vast amenities — which include a recording studio, a 10,000-seat stadium, a café, and even a planetarium.
Meanwhile, systematically under resourced districts are left with dilapidated buildings, crowded classrooms, and high teacher turnover. And the need is vast. A new report by the School Finance Research Foundation, for example, just found that Michigan’s K-12 public school buildings will need $23 billion in repairs and upgrades over the next decade.
Federal funding through laws like Title I provides funding to districts with high concentrations of low-income students, helping to offset funding disparities. Education research has consistently shown that federal education spending reduces disparities in funding, resources, and quality of education.
And people know it. That’s why, when polled, the idea of abolishing the Department of Education is very unpopular, and why Trump needed to promise that the DOE’s “useful functions such as Pell Grants, Title I funding, resources for children with disabilities and special needs will be preserved.”
But the reality of Trump’s changes make that unlikely. The Trump administration plans on moving Pell Grants, which provide financial aid to low-income college students, to the Small Business Administration, an agency with no prior experience handling student financial aid. The order also lays the groundwork for delays or even reductions in aid to schools that rely on Title I to hire teachers, improve facilities, and support students academically.
Trump’s order to dismantle the Department of Education is a clear recipe for disaster that will hurt all students, with working-class children and young adults bearing the brunt of the impact.
Why Is the Right Targeting the Department of Education?
The Department of Education was created in 1979 under Jimmy Carter as a concession to the Civil Rights movement. The federal DOE’s main functions are providing grants for low-income schools and special education programs; enforcing civil rights laws for people of color, people with disabilities, and more; administering student aid; and conducting educational research.
Since its creation, the Right has tried to abolish it. Ronald Reagan, who succeeded Carter, vowed to shut it down one year after it opened — and Republicans continued to repeat that call. They shifted tack with George W. Bush’s 2008 No Child Left Behind Act, which forced punitive “accountability” mechanisms onto schools and teachers and paved the way for Obama’s school choice-friendly Every Student Succeeds Act, which allowed for the conversion of “failing” public schools into charter schools.
And now, despite having no control over how or what students are taught, the DOE has been used as a symbol for the Right’s crusade against what it calls “woke ideology.” Last fall he said the Department had been overtaken by “radicals, zealots, and Marxists,” and his order demands that any program receiving whatever funding remains from the Department of Education “will not advance DEI or gender ideology.” In other words, teaching accurate U.S. history and protecting students’ right to express their sexuality or gender.
The hypocrisy is blatant: while claiming to champion free speech, right-wing politicians have been ramping up book bans, censoring teachers, and revoking the student visas of pro-Palestine academics with the help of university administrators.
Gutting the DOE will have immediate negative consequences — particularly for civil rights protections, school funding, and higher education grants. Yet it’s important to acknowledge that the DOE, under the leadership of both capitalist parties, has often worked against the interests of public education. The Obama administration’s expansion of charter schools is a case in point. The problem is not just Republican attacks on public education, but the broader bipartisan effort to undermine it in favor of privatization and corporate interests.
True Local Control Means Democratic Control by Workers, Students, and Communities
With the Right once again calling for “states’ rights,” we have to completely reframe the debate on what “local control of education” means. True local control would mean that power over schools should rest not with capitalist politicians — at the federal, state, or local level — or even school boards, which are often undemocratic due to low voter turnout, lack of transparency and accessibility, and the influence of wealthy families and corporate interests. Rather, real local control means democratic, collective decision-making over curriculum, teaching methods, and school funding by those who make education happen every day: students, teachers, staff, and families.
Curriculum should be developed collectively by teachers, students, families, and researchers, with teachers having the freedom to experiment with instructional methods tailored to their classrooms rather than being forced into rigid, standardized approaches that often stifle creativity and learning. The ability to shape curriculum and pedagogy isn’t just a professional necessity for educators — it’s a fundamental democratic right.
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We have to demand broad public programs that recruit new teachers, counselors, paraprofessionals, and school aides, as well as student loan forgiveness so they are not swamped with debt. We need more resources to address students’ mental health, not cops and metal detectors that make our schools more dangerous and prison-like, especially for Black and Brown youth. We have to fight for higher salaries and sustainable working conditions that attract and retain educators. This means class sizes that allow us to get to know the personalities and needs of each student, schedules that give us enough time to give meaningful feedback and plan our lessons, and enough staffing to meet the holistic needs of the children sitting in front of us.
Equally important is the fight for fully-funded schools. The capitalist state always seems to have enough money for war and genocide, but never enough for healthcare, housing, and education. Every student should have access to music, sports, and after-school programs, regardless of their zip code. We have to demand fully-funded schools for all students, where funding is based on need, not property taxes that perpetuate inequity. This also means ending tax breaks for the wealthy and corporate handouts, redirecting those funds toward public education.
But even as we fight for these reforms, we must recognize that simply “taxing the rich” is not enough. The same system that underfunds our schools prioritizes war, police, and corporate subsidies over the well-being of working-class and oppressed communities. Truly equitable education cannot exist under capitalism — it requires a complete restructuring of society toward socialism — a system that serves the needs of humanity and the environment, not profits; a system that strives to solve the crises that capitalism has produced, not perpetuate them.
This is why the fight for fully funded schools and public education is deeply tied to the broader struggle against imperialism and capitalism. If we want truly equitable schools, we must fight against the very system that perpetuates exploitation and oppression, both at home and abroad.
A real vision for public education must reject both the top-down control of the capitalist state and the creeping privatization agenda pushed by both parties. True local control means direct, democratic decision-making by those who know and care about education the most: the people in the classrooms, not capitalist politicians.
Beyond just redistributing existing wealth, we must fight for a new, socialist system — one where education, like all public goods, is controlled by workers and communities, not by the forces of capital. We have to fight not just for better schools under capitalism, but for a future where education is free, liberatory, and built by and for the working class.