The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) on Thursday strongly condemned President Trump’s executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, saying the move will only hurt the nation’s public school system.
“Despite ongoing calls from the American people for the Trump Administration to keep its promise to lower the costs of living, President Trump and Elon Musk are instead continuing their rampage against career civil servants and institutions that faithfully serve the needs of the American people,” Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), chair of the CBC, said in a statement.
“Nearly every family, in every state, in every district, and in every zip code can understand the vital role the Department of Education plays in supporting students and ensuring equal access to high-quality learning opportunities for our children,” she added. “President Trump’s executive order will lessen the department’s resources and put pressure on already overburdened school systems.”
Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to do all she can to eliminate the department. Already, 1,315 staffers at the department have been laid off, while hundreds of others were previously put on leave or took buyout options.
But the CBC said the department’s elimination would exacerbate racial disparities in education, including issues of segregation.
“In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson was unconstitutional. In the decades since, the Department of Education has played a vital role in ensuring equal access to education and enforcing desegregation laws,” Clarke said.
“Despite this important and continuing work, challenges in education persist. Today, racial segregation is increasing in our schools. President Trump’s executive actions to further dismantle the Department of Education will make our schools more segregated and unequal.”
Much of the inequality is seen through funding.
A CBS report found that, from 2015-20, districts made up of at least 80 percent Black students invested only about half as much money in buildings than those that had less than 20 percent of Black students enrolled. The disparities were in part because districts that are at least 80 percent Black received only about a quarter of the money compared to those with fewer Black students.
Black educators began sounding the alarm about what could be lost with the closure of the agency back in February, when Trump first began escalating talks of getting rid of the department.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that the Thursday order places America “back in an area where we can segregate.”
“They want to make this about bureaucracy and cutting. This is about children. This is about broadband access in their schools,” said Walz, the former Democratic vice presidential nominee. “This is about the research you were talking about pedagogy, things that we learn, and then it’s about the civil rights department at the Department of Education that makes sure that we don’t have a situation where a Ruby Bridges is escorted to school with police. And so we’re back in an area where we can segregate. And he knows, he knows, that curriculums and those decisions are made on a local basis, but they muddy the waters.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday all the “critical functions” of the Department of Education will remain in place.
But the CBC expressed concerns for the status of historically Black colleges and universities if the department is dismantled, along with Pell Grants, students with special needs, lower income communities, English as a second language students, and Title VI and Title IX laws that prohibit discrimination in education programs and activities based on race and gender.
Despite Trump’s order, only Congress can fully abolish the department. Republican lawmakers in both chambers have proposed bills to wind down the federal agency, but they have little chance of getting the necessary 60 votes in the Senate.
Now, the CBC is calling on Republicans to protect the agency.
“When the issue of abolishing the Department of Education came before the House last Congress, 60 Republicans joined Democrats in voting it down. We are calling on Republicans to stand up and demand that President Trump and Elon Musk immediately rescind this executive order which will hurt our nation’s public school systems,” it says.
