With the umpteenth decree with which Donald Trump stretches his presidential power, he signed on Thursday for the dismantling of the Ministry of Education. He ordered his Minister of Education, wrestling magnate Linda McMahon, to “start eliminating the federal department” – and ultimately her own job. “We will close it as quickly as possible,” said Trump, who was surrounded by students, activists and Republican governors in the White House.
The already decentralized public primary, secondary and higher education must thus fully become the responsibility of the fifty different states. Although the congress, that the existing department raised in 1979, is the only authority that can eliminate it. Two years ago a proposal in the House of Representatives was about it rejected.
Trumps Decree is part of the Republican endeavor to invest less in and to keep less supervision of the quality of public education and to get more grip on its ideological interpretation on the other.
Assisting students
In practice, education ‘returning’ to the States will mean that they will be given more freedom to finance religious education with tax money and to stop help to students who are less likely to come along. The ministry not only passes, so abhorred by Trump, national diversity policy, but also about extra financing for children with disabilities or language deficiencies. Although Trump emphasized that money for special education and fairs for low incomes should be ‘maintained’ on Thursday.
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In total, 50 million American children enjoy public education, of which 15 percent have a backpack. The ministry is also about scholarships to students with a low income and about student loans. About 10 percent of national money for public education runs through the ministry, the rest is already in the hands of the states and local school boards.
Earlier this month, McMahon already fired almost half of the ministry’s staff, whereby supervision of civil rights and the collection of data on the quality of schools were deleted. The first lawsuits against the dismantling have already been announced.
Whether Trump can have the ministry can be canceled by the congress is the question, but he can probably undress enough to meet a campaign blade and a long -held wish of some Republicans. Right -wing mother activists have been campaigning against the ministry since the school closures during the Corona Pandemie and see it as a driving force behind increased attention for LGBTI people in schools.
While Trump seems to let go of Washington in lower and secondary schools, he increases them on (private) universities, by denying those trade fairs and putting off students and employees.