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The Dis-Education of America [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-23
So, education in America. On Tuesday, February 4, 2025, Trump declared, “We’re ranked number 40 out of 40 schools, right?” (Source:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-plans-close-department-education-035439398.html) Right? What the hell does that statement even mean? He probably meant countries, but “schools” is what he said and what was quoted widely. In the same statement, he said, “And what I want to do is let the states run schools.” (Source: Ibid) Someone needs to tell Trump that public education has been the responsibility of the states and local governments for 180 years. Trump gets an “F” in history.
The Program for International Student Assessment, administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), conducts tests for 15-year-old students around the world. In 2022, the U.S. placed 16th out of 81 countries in science and 34th in math. Not great, but not 40th. (Source:
https://www.thebalancemoney.com/the-u-s-is-losing-its-competitive-advantage-3306225) Trump is the master of fact-mongering and fear-mongering
Speaking of educational attainment—there have been several studies about Trump’s speaking level. One analysis in 2018 was particularly notable. Conducted by Factba.se, a group that compiles public data related to political figures, particularly U.S. presidents, it was in response to Trump’s tweet on January 6, 2018: “Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. …I went from a VERY successful businessman to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius... and a very stable genius at that!” (Source of Study:
https://rollcall.com/2018/01/08/stable-genius-lets-go-to-the-data/)
Factba.se compared extemporaneous statements by fifteen presidents. The study concluded, “By every metric and methodology tested, Donald Trump’s vocabulary and grammatical structure is significantly more simple, and less diverse, than any President since Herbert Hoover, when measuring “off-script” words, that is, words far less likely to have been written in advance for the speaker.” (Source: Ibid.) Trump came in last, speaking at a 3rd-grade to 7th-grade reading level. Most Americans read at an 8th-grade level. So, with Trump, we have the dumbing down of America. Stable genius? Hardly.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump’s speeches were often incoherent, fact-damaged gibberish. Trump defended his speaking style by saying that he used the “weave,” meaning his illogical, unhinged, fanciful rambling was intentional.
Project 2025, the document that Trump said he knew nothing about, is on track to complete all of its objectives in 180 days. According to the Project 2025 Tracker, of the 300 objectives included in Project 2025, 100 have been completed, and 45 are in progress. (Source:
https://www.project2025.observer/) Apart from retribution and personal enrichment, Trump had no plans for his second term. From his perspective, Project 2025 was as good as any other plan. Trump’s only criterion were these: Will it help with tax breaks? Will it harm America?
Project 2025 includes many comments about the Department of Education including the following: “Bureaucrats at the Department of Education inject racist, anti-American, ahistorical propaganda into America’s classrooms;” “a convenient one-stop shop for the woke education cartel,” “is not particularly concerned with children’s education;” “the federal Department of Education should be eliminated,” and “families and students do not need a Department of Education to learn, grow, and improve their lives.” (Source:
https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf) In reality, many families and students rely on the Department of Education to access the resources, support, and opportunities they need to learn, grow, and improve their lives.
On March 20, 2025, this “stable genius” issued his Executive Order, “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities,” Source:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/improving-education-outcomes-by-empowering-parents-states-and-communities/) He is “improving” education by eliminating the Department of Education and distributing its programs to incompetent Trump appointees like HHS Secretary RFK, Jr. and Small Business Administer Kelly Loeffler.
The fact is, the Department of Education provided critical leadership, extensive support, and targeted funding for differently-abled students, students from low-income backgrounds, and those facing educational disadvantages while also holding schools accountable to ensure that all students had access to equal educational opportunities and the resources needed to succeed. They took Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) seriously because K-12 students in America are diverse and require equity to access opportunities. By advocating for all students, they practiced inclusion. States will not be able to replace the Department of Education—either because they can’t afford to or, in many red states, because they choose not to.
Many states will begin to engage in mis-education. We know about this because of the 1933 book The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson. He wrote about the ways in which the American education system was designed to condition Black Americans into accepting an inferior social status. Woodson argued that the system intentionally distorted history and limited opportunities, keeping Black Americans marginalized. We see this happening today with actions like those in Florida, where the state is whitewashing slavery and manipulating history to make discrimination and brutal mistreatment more palatable to white students. This cancer will spread to other red states—the Civil War by other means.
What Trump and the Republicans are offering is the Dis-Education of America, privileging private education and religious schools over public education, in part through universal school choice, which will make public funds available to parents to pay for private schools and religious schools, which will further segregate education in America.
Dis-education because they disrespect students of color and poor students, including poor white students. Public education in America was the great equalizer, the institution that made social mobility possible for the masses. But Trump and many red states will return K-12 education to a Jim Crow-like system that intentionally discriminates and leaves students behind.
A new Ruby Bridges will be unable to obtain a public education that will set her free.
The dismantling of the Department of Education and the shift towards privatizing and defunding public schools is a step backward for America. It is not just an attack on education but on the very principle of equality. Without a robust public education system, the promise of a level playing field for all children will erode, and the nation will regress to an era where access to quality education is determined by race, class, and geography. The Dis-Education of America is not just a political issue—it’s a moral one. If we allow this to continue, we risk losing the core values that have defined our nation’s success: fairness, opportunity, and the belief that every child deserves the chance to achieve their potential.
Time left to January 20, 2029: 1,399 days
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