E4E’s statement on intended dissolution of Department of Education, following memo sent by Secretary Linda McMahon

The following is a statement from Educators for Excellence on the intended dissolution of the United States Department of Education, following memo sent by newly confirmed Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon:

As educators, we are deeply invested in each student’s academic success and access to opportunity. As U.S. citizens, we are also invested in our country’s economic and democratic future and know firsthand the positive impact a strong K-12 public education system will have on our nation.

Unfortunately, the irresponsible, incendiary, and in many cases illegal actions taken or sought by the Trump Administration since the inauguration directly oppose these pursuits. 

President Trump’s desire to eliminate the United States Department of Education (USED)—and Secretary McMahon’s explicit commitment to doing so both during questioning in her Confirmation hearing and in her first direct communication to USDE employees—indicates their reckless disregard for America’s nearly 50 million K-12 public school students. This move would undoubtedly increase opportunity gaps nationwide and further undermine our system’s ability to graduate young people prepared to engage civically and digitally and to succeed professionally.

President Trump’s actions are also widely opposed by teachers nationwide: preliminary analysis of our nationally representative survey of 1,000 teachers, conducted last month, finds that no more than 20% of teachers support any of the Trump Administration’s stated educational priorities or actions taken thus far. Additionally, a majority of the American public opposes the plan to eliminate the USDE. No one—not teachers, not parents, not the American public at large—agrees with President Trump’s plans to destroy public American K-12 education, but he and Secretary McMahon insist on pursuing it anyway.

Clearly, newly appointed Secretary McMahon does not possess the necessary willingness to reject the short-sighted, chaotic, and malicious policymaking that President Trump is pursuing, nor the intention of listening to the teachers who know our schools best and the American public more broadly. The U.S. Department of Education needs a leader who answers teachers’ calls and believes in the need to reimagine the United States’s approach to K-12 education—not dismantle it.