Trump kills Department of Education

Donald Trump just issued an executive order to essentially shut down the U.S. Department of Education.

Do he and his sycophants hate children?

Just in case there's any confusion, let's clarify what the federal Department of Education does (and the perils in store for our nation's children and our country's future if Trump is allowed to dismantle the agency):

• Administer the federal student loan program. (If you or anyone you care about has — or was hoping to get — a student loan, watch out.)

• Provide benefits to more than 25 million low-income children. (Smaller class sizes, extra math instruction, preschool programs, and more are now at risk.)

• Ensure that special education programs are available in America's schools. (These programs are essential to literally millions of children all across the country with disabilities and special needs.)

• Prohibit discrimination in our nation's schools. (This is the one that really gets Trump and MAGA riled up.)

Trump and MAGA have turned schools into a culture war battlefield, with fixations on thing like which books are or aren't available in school libraries, what can and can't be taught in classrooms, who hires and fires teachers or decides how much they get paid, which students can play which sports on which teams, and whether or not to close schools during public health emergencies.

All of those things — and many, many more — are largely determined by state and city governments and local school boards. Any politician, government official, or cable news propagandist who uses any of those things to rationalize shuttering the federal Department of Education is an idiot, a liar, or (most likely) both.

So why are Trump and his cronies so bent on eliminating the Department of Education?

Because spending less on education helps pay for their tax cuts for billionaires and Big Business.

Because they want to offer up our nation's schools — and our nation's children — as yet another sacrifice on the altar of corporate privatization.

Because they've twisted themselves into thinking that public education — or at least the federal government's commitment to it — is just for poor people, Black and Brown kids, children with disabilities, and others they simply don't consider worthwhile. (As if there aren't millions and millions of families sending their kids to public schools throughout the parts of the country they consider "real" America.)

This is insane.

Any member of Congress, Democrat or Republican, who doesn't fight it — for the sake of our nation's children or even just to preserve their own constitutional authority — is a disgrace.

Tell every Republican senator and representative:

Do any of you have any courage at all? Not that it should take courage to support public education, but that's what our nation has come to as a result of your ongoing spinelessness in the face of Donald Trump, who now fancies himself all-powerful and unstoppable. Our country's future vitality depends on giving each new generation of Americans the best educational outcomes we possibly can. If you won't stand up to Trump on something as fundamental as that, your name will forever be stained.

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