Trump’s proposal to dismantle the Department of Education makes some Ohio educators ‘uneasy’
By Audrey Trevarthan/Kent State NewsLab
One of President-elect Donald Trump’s proposals is to dismantle the U.S Department of Education. The DOE’s mission is to assure equal access to education, supplement and complement the states and local school systems, improve the coordination and management of federal education programs and activities.
Connor McCurdy, a senior integrated language arts major at Kent State, said education policies affected how he voted, and Trump’s education plan has left him feeling “uneasy.”
“I agree with him on the fact that there’s a huge problem with the U.S Department of Education that needs to be fixed,” he said.
“However, his plan to do it might just be one of the worst I’ve ever seen,” he added. “ I think that his plan to get rid of it entirely isn’t the way to fix it.”
Jennifer Walton-Fisette, director of teacher education at Kent State, said the DOE is responsible for how all special education services are funded — including funds from Title I, which provides financial assistance to school districts for low-income students, and Title II, which prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities and IEP and 504 plans. Both are tailored instruction and accomodation plans based on federal laws that offer support for students with disabilities.
Walton-Fisette said there’s a growing population of students that need these services and support from intervention specialists, Title I, teachers and tutors. But eliminating the DOE would hurt the funding that supports these services, making it harder to keep them active.
“They’ll be able to offer less support” without federal funding, she said. “I don’t think that it’s going to take away our special education program, because they need those educators, but the finances to support some of the programs will be different.”
Further, Walton-Fisette said Title IX — a civil rights law banning sex discrimination among students and employees — would be in jeopardy if the DOE were dismantled. Title IX protects student sexual assault survivors and LGTBQ+ students. She said these guidelines could change drastically without having the Civil Rights Office to focus on them.
“[The funds are] provided at the state, but there’s legislation through the Department of Education, the Civil Rights Office that supports this,” she said. “And so how would those services still continue if there’s no longer the Department of Education?”
Walton-Fisette noted that this isn’t the first time the DOE has been at risk. The Ronald Reagan administration had the idea to eliminate the DOE in 1981. She said this is how A Nation at Risk, the Reagan Administration’s government report warning “a rising tide of mediocrity” in America’s education system, came to be — a report that eventually led to the modern school reform movement.
But she fears this time is different.
“I will say that this administration, more than any previous administrations, worries me greatly, because all the … balances that they have in Congress and other legislative branches, I think, is no longer going to be there,” she said. “There’s a lot of fear. And that’s the intention of this administration, is to come through a lot of fear.”
Other teachers are already concerned about the path of the education system as well. According to a study from Pew Research Center, 52% of K-12 teachers said they would not advise a young person starting out today to become a teacher. And 77% reported that their job is frequently stressful.
“In my own teaching experience, I’ve seen [the education system] getting worse and worse, from when I was a kid to where these kids are at now,” McCurdy said.
This story was originally published by the Kent State NewsLab, a collaborative news outlet publishing journalism by Kent State students.