Civil rights groups say push to dismantle Education Department will undo hard-won gains
Posted by The Associated Press on April 1, 2025
The rights of Americans to self-determine how to educate their children — a hotly contested matter that stretches back to at least the Civil War — have long been intertwined with the principle of equally and equitably educating children across racial lines.
When President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order to dismantle the U.S. Education Department, he declared that“the experiment of controlling American education through federal programs and dollars … has plainly failed our children, our teachers, and our families.” By doing so, he reopened a debate in the fight over the federal government’s role in education policy.
Civil rights advocates see Trump’s order to shutter the department as a broadside against hard-fought gains in educational access — an unfinished, but nonetheless central, part of the movement for racial equality and greater democracy. Supporters of the president’s plans, however, see it as a step toward providing more local control and higher quality educational opportunities for different communities.
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