It’s like Trump’s fiasco with the tariffs. And what a sick thrill it must be to dismantle a well-functioning government branch. Now he would abolish the Department of Education—created by an act of Congress so it’s likely that he will not succeed. Trump can’t order the Department out of existence but he can harass it and cut funds and people to destroy its good works and functions.
I did several communications projects back in the 1980s for what was then called the U.S. Office of Education. We worked with handicapped kids, their parents and teachers. (“Special needs” children they are now called; government is full of such euphemisms.) Our project helped parents get services for their kids, and I later wrote, produced and narrated an audio-visual show about how educational think-tanks operate.
The people I worked with in Washington amazed me by how efficient, dedicated and competent they were. Like many others, I thought of the bureaucracy in mostly negative terms. What a nice surprise to find them hard-working and helpful.
Here’s what the DOE basically does:
The department administers federal grant programs, including the $18.4 billion Title I program that provides supplemental funding to high-poverty K-12 schools, as well as the $15.5 billion program that helps cover the cost of education for students with disabilities. The department also oversees the $1.6 trillion federal student loan program and sets rules for what colleges must do to participate.
Now since it can’t formally close the Department, Trump & Co. would kill it by major cuts to staff, programs and grants. Musk and Trump and Linda McMahon, the new Education Secretary, have announced their intention to stifle these programs or devolve them to the states, though the states already administer most of them! This is the chainsaw mentality or, worse, the actions of people who have no idea of what they are doing. The drastic consequences for kids with disabilities are spelled out here.
I had two uncles who, during and after World War II, worked in the Foreign Service of the State Department for peace and stability. Uncertain in what I wanted to do in life, I was proud of them and maybe some of their dedication rubbed off in my taking on those education projects. Such people get little public notice now, and Trump has no use for them.
And their staffs have an impact though they make no headlines. Robert Kaplan understands this and recently wrote about it in Politico, “Trump Does Not Know How to Run an Empire”:
The finest linguists and political secretaries are needed in overseas embassies to manage such challenges. Weaken the bureaucracy at this crucial level — at the same time you are discouraging new generations of young people from going into public service — and you weaken American power itself. This might take time to be noticed, but its effect will be real and insidious. . . . Public service is the secret sauce that has maintained our position in the world for decades.
Those who work for our government do so as a form of public service. Education is certainly part of that “secret sauce.”
John, a combination of stupidity and cruelty that is so sickening that I cannot read your links right now, which I’m sure are as good as usual.
The damage is real and lasting and will take decades to undo, if ever.
Do I really want to stick around for that?
The same is true in local government. I worked in the Public Health department of the City of San Francisco for several years in the 1980s. This was during the early years of the AIDS crisis. I was tremendously impressed by the creativity, hard work and dedication of the public servants I worked with.