Megan Guzman, Opinions Editor

In the coming days, the Senate is expected to vote to confirm Linda McMahon as the education secretary for the Department of Education. This comes after months of attacks by Donald Trump and his supporters on the department, with Trump saying that he wants to shut it down. Trump nominated McMahon, co-founder of the WWE, so she could “put [her]self out of a job,” with McMahon stating she wants to “return education to the states where it belongs. Republicans have spent years targeting the Education Department, blaming it for low test scores and, as of late, ideological indoctrination. However, the Department of Education only accounts for about 10% of school budgets, with the overwhelming majority coming from state and local taxes.  

This begs the question, what does the Department of Education do? According to an NPR report, the Department of Education has three jobs: Managing federal student loans, protecting students’ civil rights, and sending money to the poorest schools. The federal government has no say over school curriculum and, instead, serves to even the scales for underfunded schools. Through managing student loans, the federal government offers grants and low interest loans to qualifying students to afford increasingly expensive college tuitions. Without this assistance, many students wishing to attend college would have to enter the private loan market, with higher interest rates, making the decision an even greater expense.  

The Department of Education also protects students with disabilities, helping fund special education programs and providing resources for schools to justly educated disabled students. Without these programs, many schools could be forced to cut back on or eliminate special education, leaving millions of students without adequate resources. This department also enforces Title IX, which prevents sex-based discrimination. Without Title IX, schools could defund or eliminate girls’ and women’s sports.  

Clearly the Department of Education serves a necessary role in helping create a more just and equitable education system for the most marginalized students. Why would anyone want to eliminate it? Many Republican advocates are pushing for “school choice,” which values private schooling over the funding of public schools. “School choice” supporters have a long, entangled history with white supremacy, as the term became popularized during the Reconstruction period and again after Brown v. Board of Education desegregated public schools. Additionally, private schools represent a $98.9 billion dollar industry, which seems to be growing since the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption to education. These factors indicate that Republicans benefit from the privatization and defunding of public schools in multiple ways.  

This war on public education extends beyond the federal government. For example, Republicans here in North Carolina pushed for an increase in private-school vouchers to use taxpayer dollars to fund private school education for wealthy children. Overriding former Governor Cooper’s veto, the Republican supermajority in the N.C. Congress passed a bill that would allow anyone, regardless of income, to receive taxpayer funded vouchers to attend private schools, siphoning money from local public schools. These tactics point to a broader trend towards privatizing schools and defunding education. 

Donald Trump, himself, cannot eliminate the Department of Education because it was created through an act of congress. Chances of complete elimination are slim, but gutting the department from the inside still threatens the important work it does. Continuing to fund important programs, like Title IX and special education, must be prioritized to achieve equitable educational outcomes. We must protect the Department of Education because it’s good, actually.