Trump wants to dismantle the DOE, and that’s a good idea. But it has to be followed with more reform at the state and local levels to actually make a difference.

From The Federalist. Last week, Donald Trump nominated Linda McMahon, co-founder of the World Wrestling Entertainment company, the head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, and two-time nominee for the U.S. Senate, as his secretary of education. …

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As Trump has said on numerous occasions, the ultimate hope is that McMahon will be the last secretary of education and work to eliminate the Department of Education altogether. He and many others believe this will help end the leftist indoctrination happening in schools, restore parental rights, weaken teachers unions, and save the federal government a few hundred billion dollars each year.

While all this sounds very nice, speaking as a high school English teacher who has worked in this system for nearly two decades, this rationale fundamentally misunderstands what the DOE does and doesn’t do.

First and foremost, the DOE mainly cuts checks for schools that serve poorer students, certain special education programs, and bogus education studies that no one reads. …

That said, the DOE has overstepped its authority in the past decade by using federal funds to force states to use Common Core curriculum. At the same time, Barack Obama used the department to send out “guidelines” for school discipline that let countless delinquents off the hook in the name of equity. …

… Indeed, reversing these ridiculous policies that have dumbed down most classrooms and made them unsafe and chaotic would be the best thing someone like McMahon could do.

Outside of this, however, the influence of the DOE’s absence would be limited. Public education is mostly controlled by state and local governments along with district school boards and administrators. Even if these officials could finally raise academic and behavioral standards without fear of losing funding or being sued, most of them, even in conservative areas, have an interest in maintaining the status quo. After all, what are unhappy parents going to do? Leave? …

More importantly, all these decisions are made by those who either have no experience in the classroom or have been out of the classroom for many years. They are the ones who think it would be a good idea to put gay pornography in school libraries, facilitate transgender transitions for depressed adolescents, and shut down “gifted and talented” programs to close racial achievement gaps. …

All of which is to say that getting rid of the DOE or at least diminishing its role would only be the first step. The next, much harder step would be voting for politicians and policies that would implement school vouchers for students, merit pay for teachers, expanded school accreditation, and much more standardized testing to hold educational institutions accountable. …

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(Excerpt from The Federalist. Photo Credit: CDC on Unsplash)