Dissolving the U.S. Department of Education
A closer look at how the Left will benefit by dissolving the U.S. Department of Education
It is with nothing short of shock and bafflement that I am forced to admit Republicans are actually right about something — cruel reasons and catastrophic methods notwithstanding: the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has got to go.
Republicans have been crying about the ED and promising to eliminate it ever since it was shepherded back into existence 45 years ago by former President Jimmy Carter (RIP to a real one). Now that they’ve seized control of our federal government, Republicans are on the verge of realizing their life’s work and shutting the department down.
Republicans’ problem with the department no doubt stems from the fact that its primary purpose is “to strengthen the Federal commitment to ensuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual.” Anyone who’s been paying attention for more than five minutes knows it’ll be the 100th straight day of blizzard conditions in hell before Republicans ensure access to equal educational opportunity for every individual.
To prevent it from fulfilling its purpose, Republicans have to stop the ED from accomplishing its main directives, which are:
Providing Title I funds for low-income schools, Title III funds for English learners and immigrant students, Pell Grants for low-income college students, and IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) funding for special education students.
Enforcing laws that prohibit discrimination in our schools on the basis of race, sex, disability, and national origin.
Collecting invaluable information about student achievement, equity gaps, and school performance.
To that end, Republicans have, in the six short months they’ve been in charge:
Let Elon and his gang of goons down at DOGE gut the ED’s Office for Civil Rights. Where once there were a dozen regional outposts across the country handling civil rights complaints in schools and colleges, now there’s only five.
Threatened to yank Title I funding from any public schools that don’t ditch their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs.
Proposed slashing $12 billion from the ED’s 2026 budget. Clueless billionaire and “wholly unqualified” Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, showed up before Congress to defend those cuts, which include reducing the maximum annual Pell Grant benefit by nearly a quarter—taking it from roughly $7,400 a year to $5,700.
Weaponized Title IX by withholding millions of dollars in federal funding from universities that allow transgender students to play sports. At the same time, the ED’s depleted Office for Civil Rights is pausing its investigations into assault claims and leaving countless survivors of sexual violence without protection or support.
Stopped paying out the $1 billion in grant money that school districts across the country were using to hire mental health professionals like counselors and social workers. As a result, rural voters — 69% of whom voted for Trump in 2024 — have entered the “finding out” phase of FAFO.
All this fuckery will continue as long as the government-controlled Department of Education stays open. And as long as it stays open, our tax money will continue to be wasted funding a department whose success Republicans are determined to prevent.
The ED’s continued existence means millions of America’s school kids will continue to be underserved and left behind. So make no mistake: by fighting to keep the government-controlled ED open, we’re fighting to ensure our tax money is wasted and that not all our kids receive a quality education.
I know the idea of closing the ED hits a nerve — we’re all aware of what’s at stake: Title I funding, civil rights enforcement, Pell Grants, protections for disabled students. But we’re not doing our kids any favors by pretending this sabotaged department is still delivering on those promises. We’re not saving these programs by keeping the ED open; we’re just ensuring that the gaps fueling inequality never get filled.
The Much Better Alternative
But what if, instead of using our education tax dollars to keep the deliberately sabotaged, government-controlled ED limping along, we used those dollars to fund a 100% Republican-free education department of our own design? This ideal alternative is made possible by the bold new Choice Taxation plan.
If you’re not familiar with Choice Taxation, you’ll find a guide to it here. But for now, here’s all you need to know:
Under the plan, our government would no longer have any involvement in key domestic issues. Instead, life-defining issues like education would be governed exclusively by four new partisan tax systems: the Progressive Tax System, the Democrat Tax System, the Republican Tax System, and the MAGA Tax System.
With these new tax systems, we’d be able to pool our education tax dollars together with those of our like-minded peers and have those dollars used to fund education policies and programs rooted in our shared values and beliefs.
After the tax systems were up and running, after the tax system we chose to join collected our education tax dollars, and after it used those dollars to create an education system of its own, all government involvement in education would end.
And by all government involvement, I mean all. Republicans only want to end government involvement in education on the federal level — presumably so no one will be able to stop states from letting just some of their residents get an education while forcing a lot of other residents to get a couple of those low-paying manual-labor jobs that America’s oligarchs have created in spades. In contrast, Choice Taxation would end government involvement on the state and local levels as well. Because the damage that state and local Republicans are capable of doing doesn’t just match that of their federal peers — it often exceeds it. Just look at how members of right-wing extremist organizations like Klanned Karenhood Moms for Liberty (infamous for finding inspiration in Hitler’s words) have used their positions on local school boards and their relationships with state and local Republican lawmakers to force their bigoted, white, Christian nationalist views down the throats of countless kids.
With all government involvement ended, our public schools would be divided up proportionately among the tax systems and each system would be free to run, fund, and govern them however they like. Then the federally-run ED (and its state and local equivalents) would be dissolved and we’d no longer be forced to fund an education department run by America’s worst and dimmest. Instead, those of us on the Left would see our tax dollars used to fund an education department run by the best and brightest.
Setting Them Up For Success
By putting four new partisan tax systems in charge of education, Choice Taxation ensures everyone on the Left will, through the Progressive and Democrat Tax Systems, have an education department that Republicans have absolutely no say in. And I double dog dare anyone on the Left to say with a straight face that keeping the government-controlled ED open would be better than having a 100% Republican-free education department of our own design.
Because as long as the government-controlled ED remains open, Republicans will continue to ensure it never comes close to fulfilling its promise or purpose. To keep fighting Republicans on this is to keep fighting to ensure they retain the power to set our kids up for failure.
Our kids deserve so much better. They deserve an education department committed to setting them up for success — one that’s led by experienced, skilled, and highly qualified educators and professionals who recognize that education is a basic human right and treat it accordingly.
We’ve seen what education looks like when it’s sabotaged by people who hate the idea of equality. Now imagine what it could look like when it’s run by people who believe in every child’s right to learn, thrive, and lead.
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