Last month, Donald Trump nominated Linda McMahon, co-founder of the World Wrestling Entertainment organization, the mind of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first word, and two-time candidate for the U. S. Senate, as his director of knowledge.  ,
While Democrat reviewers will denigrate McMahon’s lack of education practice, some liberals will see this as her greatest resource. McMahon did approach her role with the necessary rationality and separation that real reform requires, unlike present Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, who is an equity-obsessed educrat from Connecticut. Like any successful entrepreneur, she will get solutions, no excuses, for the rising costs and declining functionality that have plagued National K-12 state schools for decades.
The ultimate goal is for McMahon to become the Department of Education’s next secretary of education, as Trump has stated on numerous occasions, and to work to completely abolish it. He and many others think that this will put an end to communist education, restore parental rights, weaken teachers ‘ organizations, and save the federal government a couple billion dollars annually.  ,
As a high school English teacher who has worked in this system for nearly 20 years, all of this seems very nice, but this justification fundamentally misunderstands what the DOE does and does n’t do.
First and foremost, the DOE generally cuts checks for schools that serve poorer individuals, sure special education programs, and false training reports that no one reads. It does n’t explicitly mandate any pedagogical or disciplinary approaches, nor does it do much with the government’s standardized test, which are handled by a third party. For this reason, it is preferable to view the DOE as a welfare-oriented system as opposed to an academic one.
Despite this, the DOE has overstepped its authority in the last ten years by using federal resources to force state to apply Common Core education. Barack Obama also distributed “guidelines” for school discipline, which let many delinquents go without pay in the name of equity, while using the department to do so. Schools that disregarded these rules were subject to legal repercussions and punishing studies.  ,
While most people have stopped paying attention to these conflicts, they also create problems for teachers. Typical Core has largely been embraced by most states, even if it is also known by other names today, and there is still a push to lower penalties for misbehavior, specifically for students who are not of color. In fact, someone like McMahon would be the best person to reverse these crazy laws that have dumbed down most classrooms and created chaos and uncomfortable.
Outside of this, but, the effect of the DOE’s presence may be limited. State and local governments, as well as city school board and administrators, are largely in charge of public knowledge. Most of these officials, even those in traditional areas, have an interest in upholding the status quo, even if they could eventually raise intellectual and cognitive standards without losing funding or facing legal action. What will angry relatives do, after all? Keep?
Parents can leave if a condition establishes a school choice program that offers them various options for education. If not, wealthy parents will just have to deal with the community public school, which has no incentive to alter anything. Although these subpar institutions may produce students who ca n’t read, do basic math, or even function as independent adults, they can always rely on Democrats and established Republicans to support their continued funding.
More importantly, those making these decisions have neither no prior experience in the classroom or had spent a lot of time absent. They are the ones who believe that closing “gifted and talented” programs to near racial achievement gaps would be a good idea to include queer sexuality in school libraries, promote transgender transitions for sad adolescents, and promote transgender transitions. For all the talk of” partners” in public knowledge, those of us with a specific interest — students, parents, and teachers— are eventually forced to do our best in an essentially destructive system.
All of which implies that the DOE’s removal or at least its diminished function 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.  ,
This would encourage competition between schools for enrollment, as well as decentralization in American educational systems, giving teachers and parents more authority. Instead of massive one-size-fits-all districts, campuses, and classrooms, K-12 schools would be smaller, more specialized, and tailored to specific educational needs. Instead of the bureaucratic bloat, incompetence, and corporate anonymity that characterizes most faculties, there would be far more efficient, talented, and close-knit communities of educators with a shared mission.
All of this will undoubtedly be a result of a process that goes beyond a new DOE official’s initial few changes to federal policy. It will require every American to acquiesce to Trump’s example and help to lower the state and city educational system. It may be daunting, but it’s possible and certainly worth doing.  ,
