Donald Trump has won the 2024 election against Kamala Harris and will now be president starting in 2025. With his election many questions have come into mind. Of particular interest to our school is Trump’s plans with the Department of Education. According to abcnews.com, “President-elect Donald Trump has proposed a plan to eliminate the Department of Education to “send all education work and needs back to the states,” according to his Agenda47 policy platform.” What will this do to schools? How will people build their futures? Is this really the correct thing to do? The department of education was formed on October 17, 1979, and for Donald Trump to suddenly propose this plan to get rid of it is a giant decision for the nation and will definitely change the future of it as well.
A Deeper Dive on Trump’s view of The Department of Education
Mr. Trump believes the department of education should be closed down. He has expressed the belief that the states would run the education better for the children instead of the department of education. According to an article by NPR, ““One other thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington D.C., and sending all education and education work and needs back to the states,” Trump said in a video posted to social media in October 2023 where he laid out his vision for education. “We want them to run the education of our children because they’ll do a much better job of it,” he was recorded as saying.
Does Trump truly have the power to close The Department of Education?
It does indeed seem like Trump will be able to close down the Department of Education if he and his team truly tried hard enough to do so. While a complete closing of the department would take an act of Congress, an article by WGCU gives a better analysis and explanation of how Trump’s team will work to shut down the Department of Education and how possible it is on a logical scale. The article says “One of the more likely moves from the Trump administration will be getting rid of those regulations and changing the way that civil rights enforcement happens within the Department of Education,” Valant said.” Trump and his team ridding of the regulations inside of the Department of Education shows how much Trump will be working hard to oppress it, showing the seriousness of this situation and the likelihood of this happening.
How will this affect schools nationwide?
Overall, shutting down the Department of Education will greatly increase the difficulty of education for students in the nation, by getting rid of the regulations and the materials that the students are supplied with. A closing will create a huge imbalance and will make education for students much harder. An article by the Washington Post empathizes the difficulty of bringing down the Department of education and how it will affect students, “Closing the Education Department would surely have a symbolic impact. There would no longer be a member of the Cabinet focused solely on education issues and empowered to speak to Americans about the challenges schools face. It would be harder for the federal government to elevate education issues or press for change in schools.”
What do people at TCA have to say about this issue?
We have discussed what this would do on a national level, but let’s get into the local viewpoint of this topic. Let’s hear how Trump’s effect on education will affect us here at TCA by seeing the thought processes of TCA staff and students.
Do you think the department of education should be state controlled?
“There has to be a balancing act, I think that’s as old as American democracy is how much balance you have between the federal government and the state government” -Mr.Averill, English Teacher
If Trump completely got rid of school what do you think would happen here in the heights?
“I believe people would be less successful and wouldn’t get the education they needed from the schools. People would have to figure out and set up a different type of learning system”. -Delaney Caro, 10th grader
Do you think the department of education should be controlled by the state government?
“Yes I do because if it wasn’t then what if you know, Governor Desantis was the president of the United States that would mean we would have education like in Florida. That’s horrible, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. I think it should absolutely be up to the states.” -Mr. Alan Merced, English Teacher
If Trump and his administrative team completely got rid of the department of education, what do you think would happen to TCA on a local level?
“Most of our funds come from the city and the state, the federal level does have some access to funding and does give it to us through a lot of “strings” and New York state does get [federal money]. What I believe would happen is on the school level, nothing, we would stay whole and the money would stay the same but for all the residents that live in New York City and New York State they would probably have to make up for that short fall and taxes would go up in New York.” -Mr. Timothy Sigerson, Principal
