Ancil
Many people are worried about the Department of Education (DoE) after Donald Trump signed an order that will dismantle it.
In recent days, Trump began the process of shutting down the decades-old department and laid off almost half off the 4,133 members of staff.
Two hundred and fifty-two people are still working for the Department of Education, but their jobs are in danger because Trump signed an order to close the Department of Education.
The White House said earlier on March 20 that the department would still be in charge of federal student loans, but the order seems to say the opposite.
It says the Education Department does not have the staff to oversee its 1.6 trillion dollar loan portfolio and ‘must return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve America’s students’.
National Education Association President Becky Pringle said at the time that the Trump administration had ‘abandoned students, parents, and educators across the nation’.
But others have argued that the DoE has long been funnelling ‘billions of taxpayer dollars into a failing system’.
Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation who is in favor of the DoE’s dismantlement, said: “For decades, it has funnelled billions of taxpayer dollars into a failing system — one that prioritises leftist indoctrination over academic excellence, all while student achievement stagnates and America falls further behind.”
In other places, The head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Derrick Johnson, doesn’t like the choice.
“This is a dark day for the millions of American children who depend on federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor and rural communities with parents who voted for Trump,” he added.
Some people are getting ready to go to court, and Democracy Forward, a public interest lawsuit group, is one of them.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer called the order a ‘tyrannical power grab’ and ‘one of the most destructive and devastating steps Donald Trump has ever taken’.
Margaret Spelling, who served as education secretary under Republican president George W Bush, questioned whether whether the department will be able to accomplish its remaining missions, and whether it will ultimately improve schools.
“Will it distract us from the ability to focus urgently on student achievement, or will people be figuring out how to run the train?” she asked me.
Do you agree with the Trump administration’s choice to break up the DoE?
