After the installation of the new government administration, many drastic changes have been both proposed and implemented. We constantly hear a barrage of rumors and facts and sometimes they are indistinguishable from one another. As high school students looking towards the future, it is more important than ever to be engaged in our country’s politics and keep a close eye on our president’s recent proposed actions.
Since our current President Donald Trump was inaugurated on January 20th, I’ve personally seen in succession more shocking news than I had seen in the previous four years. Tariffs were implemented and suspended, a massive body of water was renamed, and our government is attempting to purchase multiple other countries. Somehow getting less publicity, there is an incredibly high chance that our government will close the Department of Education. So what exactly is going on, and what does all of this mean?
Amid all the headline makers, the closing of the Department of Education would have the biggest concrete change in American lives. Abolishing the department would move all power into the hands of the states, which could drastically change education for students across the country.
In theory, it is logical to give education to the states, because states already control the majority of education. Curriculum is not under national control, as there are state standards that determine what people in each state learn. This is honestly entirely logical- what a person in New York values and someone in Iowa values are very different from one another. However, this is not the actual concern with shutting down the department.
The Department of Education is a federal agency established in 1979. It helps to provide equal access to education. The Department’s role in providing education is small, although crucial. It channels federal education funding, instates different educational policies, and ensures that all educational laws are abided by. The Department financially provides for different programs, including but not limited to special education and providing financial assistance for low-income students. It provides equal opportunity to receive an education regardless of background and socioeconomic status. The Department of Education collects educational data on student and teacher demographics, student test scores, graduation rates, et cetera. It provides financing so all students, including those with disabilities, can receive a free education. In addition, the department helps lower-income students afford college.
More than anything, the Department of Education provides funding for schools across the nation, ensuring that even kids in rural areas have access to a good education. State and local governments sometimes fall short of providing education opportunities for students in lower socioeconomic areas, which is where Title One comes in. Title One helps cater to low-income students, ensure that schools meet national educational standards and close prominent gaps in student economic achievement across social classes. The Department of Education is crucial to the way that our country runs and provides for its youth.
As of right now, the Department of Education is still open, and the proposal to close it completely is still in the works. However, 900 million dollars of funding for education research has already been cut from the national budget. This money previously allowed the department to take demographic data and create a better understanding of the student and teacher populations across the country. In addition, all funding for the United States international testing data was removed from the budget. This means for international assessments, we will be unable to see our data compared to different countries. This all may sound so very superfluous and numerical, but we rely on these statistics so heavily in the functioning of our government. They provide important reference points and information for us to continue functioning.
If the department continues to be gutted and eventually fully dissolved, the people at highest risk are the students in lower socioeconomic areas. This would defund those schools in low-income areas through the dissolution or reduction of Title One grants. It would be much more difficult to check discrimination, which left unchecked increases the student dropout risk. There is also the risk of the elimination of the Pell Grant, which thirty percent of students rely on for college tuition.
If the Department of Education continues to be damaged by new governmental policy, there threatens to be far fewer students earning a college or even high school degree. Devaluing the education of our nation’s youth poses an incredible risk for our future- will we continue to educate ourselves? The accommodations provided by our current system allow many students to achieve what they wouldn’t be able to without that support. The future of our education system is at risk, and we have to fight to preserve it.
