Education, the very principle that lifts one from the bootstraps of poverty to become what one has always dreamed of. As a teacher, I tried to instill this concept into the hearts and minds of my students. Although I don't teach anymore, I still think of the young teenagers that have walked through my door. I sit here and think about the good and bad experiences, yet my heart is still filled with joy when I see them doing well. As we come to yet another forefront in the world, we stop at the concept of education and the direction it is heading in. The individual perspective is clear and concise, change is near.
Although eliminating the Department of Education isn’t a new concept, it is something that conservatives wish to do in present times. Reagan proposed such a measure during his presidency, now the Trump administration is trying to do the same thing. Whether it will be a good or bad thing remains to be seen. Nonetheless, we shall dive into the nature and causes of why conservatives wish to eliminate the department. First and foremost, Trump and his allies believe that education should be returned to the states, school districts, and the parents, not the federal government. Secondly, it reduces the federal bureaucracy, which spends large sums of money without improving student outcomes. In addition, they believe that the Department of Education favors public schools over private and charter schools, and wish to deliver vouchers to American families to attend such schools. To me, this is a bit far-fetched because the pre-dominant population will only attend public school in their lifetime and from my personal experience, the public school provides much more value than that of private or charter schools. As we move forward, some conservatives feel the federal government pushes Common Core Standards even though states adopt them voluntarily. They believe that the DOE influences curriculum and cultural issues and attaches conditions to federal funding. But, from the individual perspective, to remove the cultural capital from the classroom is to eliminate part of history that each American brings to the classroom and society as a whole. You can’t white wash history, you tell it as a story whether good or bad for history is truly learned through the study of the individual perspective
Before we dive into more on this topic, we must next discuss what the DOE actually does. Even though most schooling is run locally, the department is in charge of a few national programs such as: federal student loans and grants, enforcing civil rights laws in schools, funding low-income school districts(Title I), and providing special education support under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA. To eliminate the DOE would mean Congress would have to find ways to fund these national programs, create new departments to manage such things, or get rid of them altogether.
As we move along, we stop this train of thought and recognize the opposition to the elimination of the Department of Education. People who oppose the elimination of the DOE iterate what the DOE does for students such as maintaining equity, funding, and national protections. One of the department’s major roles is to enforce civil rights laws in education. For example, there are three specific federal laws that promote equity and fairness in education, those being Title IX, Title VI, and IDEA. Title IX protects against sex discrimination, Title VI protects against racial discrimination, and IDEA guarentees education for those with disabilities. To eliminate the DOE could lead to regression in states that don’t value such things. The federal government sends billions of dollars to schools, especially in low income school districts. Public funding for public school comes from local property taxes, with low income housing comes less public funding for education. A key program that protects low income school districts is Title I, or the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. I have worked in several Title I schools in my time as a teacher and I have first hand seen just how important Title I funding is to the performance of the school both intellectually and in overall well-being. To eliminate the DOE would lead to less funding for food and educational programs in impoverished communities. No child should go to school hungry, for hunger leads to no learning, but I digress. The elimination of the DOE will inevitably lead to widening gaps between the haves and the have nots, which in turn, will create inequality in education.
I close my eyes and memories propagate in my mind of the years past in my role as an educator. I think about the good, bad, and the ugly experiences and draw conclusions about such experiences. One thing is for certain, change must occur, and that change is in the home. Regardless of socio-economic status, education must be valued in the home for growth and achievement to occur. Family values in low income school districts are much different than those in well-to-do school districts. The juxtaposition is evident as the polarizing worlds of the two come to the surface of my mind’s conscious thought. No amount of money can change this concept because to value your child’s future is to value their education.
At the same time, I see a change occurring in the current generation. The values of past generations have fallen by the waste side, but not totally. Social media has changed the way children think and behave in public spaces. Children are attached at the hip by their phones, but measures have been taken to eliminate such problems. Some school districts have banned technology from the classroom, lessening the distractions that social media brings to the educational experience. I draw to a memory of one particular student, a Chinese foreign exchange student. He didn’t speak a lick of english, but we talked via google translator. He told me that technology was banned in Chinese classrooms, and to have technology in the classroom would lead to expulsion from the school. He was two grade levels ahead of his peers in the classroom and would receive top marks in my World History class although he had to translate everything from English to Mandarin and back to English to answer the questions. In the end, technology is an important aspect of education for I have learned many things through Youtube and Khan Academy, but cell phones and social media create a distraction leading to less learning and retention supported by neuroscience.
As we close out the story on education, I draw once again from my own experiences. At my last job, I taught AP World History, Inclusion World History, and led and wrote the district level curriculum for World History. In my first year teaching AP World as a certified AP Instructor, my students beat the GA and national averages and had nearly a 75% pass rate on the exam. Those who failed to score a 3 or higher shouldn’t have even been in the class, but that is personal and familial choice for what course they wished to take. I also taught inclusion classes which is where special education and general education students are in the same classroom. This was such a rewarding experience for me. I remember one such student that came from a self-contained classroom to learn with me 1st period. He didn’t receive a grade, but he looked forward to coming to class everyday. His handwriting was terrible, but regardless of his fine motor skills and disabilities, he did extremely well and was attentive to all the lessons taught from day 1. I remember back to a lesson on the Battles of World War II, and he corrected me on dates in front of the whole class, leading me to believe that interest supersedes society’s perception of students with intellectual disabilities. To eliminate the funding from the DOE would be a disservice to students like this and there are many of them. But, even with success stories comes those nightmares that America’s public school teachers face. I have been cursed out, threatened with violence, disrespected, and much more for just wanting the students to focus and learn something new. Forgiveness is a two way street though for I am not a perfect person. As a close out of this story, I think about a world without equality, equity, and diversity in education. Change is necessary for America to grow educationally, but to change education is to change the perception of it at home. To defund education at the federal level would be a disservice to low income districts and special education students, those who need the most help to lift them up from the bootstraps to chase their dreams of better days ahead.
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