On Thursday March 20, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education. This decision has resulted in widespread uncertainty over the security of education and the motives of the current administration.
The Department of Education is responsible for creating education policy, administering federal financial aid, collecting data on schools, promoting student academic achievement and ensuring equal access to education.
The Department of Education oversees and donates to a multitude of organizations and institutions in order to achieve the aforementioned goals. The Department of Education operates in different ways depending on the level of education, whether it be higher-level education or elementary and secondary education.
For higher-level education, the Department of Education mostly focuses on college financial aid. For example Pell grants, which provide financial aid to students based on their family’s ability to pay for a college education.
This also includes work-study programs as well as the Federal Student Loan Program which offers subsidized loans with more lenient terms than private loans, including repayment plans, debt forgiveness, lower interest rates and deferred payments.
When considering earlier education like elementary, middle and high school, the Department of Education is also crucial. Dealing with things like language acquisition programs, special education programs, Title I schools, school meals, arts programs, homeless education and so much more.
The dissolution of the Department of Education, and thereby the disruption of all these resources is sure to have dire consequences on the state of education in the United States. As far as the impact of this on the community at ANHS, there will likely be less issues.
Mr. Kelley, head of the ANHS Special Education Department explains, “The state of California does a really good job taking care of students and special education programs. While the news tends to dramatize situations like this, even if the Department of Education is permanently closed, it is still our legal obligation to support students with needs. At our school we work mostly with local government and local property taxes to receive funding, only around 6% is from the Department of Education.”
Since the Department of Education was established in 1980, it has been a significant number of years since it hasn’t been in operation, so it is difficult to tell the exact impact of its absence.
Assistant Principal Ms. Wegner elaborates, “We aren’t sure how this will affect our school as it hasn’t happened before. I chose this for my career because I believe in the importance of prioritizing education and taking care of kids, and I would hope that that would be reflected in how we choose to fund education.”
Given such information, it seems reasonable to assume that California schools will be safe from this development. That is not to say that the dissolution of the Department of Education will not affect the country, just that California residents and their children are fortunate enough to have protective legislation in place to help.
However, this decision reflects a concerning disregard for the well being of the American people, and it would not be surprising if it leads to devastation in the long run. Americans must continue to pay attention to what is going on in government, remaining conscious of the changes being implemented.
