Trump is closing the Department of Education forever because…some 8th-graders failed a test?

I have previously noted the utter vapidity of a recent executive order on “DEI.” Now the Trump administration’s war on wokeness continues with an executive order aiming to close the Department of Education.

Setting aside the (extremely important!) question of whether Trump can close a federal department without congressional approval, this executive order again displays the extreme intellectual laziness of a team who, despite the immense resources at their disposal, cannot be bothered to explain themselves to the American people with compelling logic or real evidence.

“Closing the Department of Education would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them,” the order states. And how do we know that the system is failing them? “Today, American reading and math scores are near historical lows,” the order continues. “This year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that 70 percent of 8th graders were below proficient in reading, and 72 percent were below proficient in math.”

Those statistics are fine to use as a sort of provocation — as an example of data worthy of concern. But those numbers constitute the entire body of evidence presented to demonstrate the department’s ineffectiveness! There are no comparisons to past test results, no considerations of any other age groups or subject areas. No experts are cited; no sources (peer-reviewed or otherwise) are referenced.

Out of the vast reams of educational achievement data available, this administration has justified its sudden radical unilateral action with a total of two data points. Two!

Consider me unconvinced.

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2 responses

  1. Monty Harper Avatar
    Monty Harper

    Republicans have been attacking and weakening public education for many years in order to be able to say that it doesn’t work. An educated public just doesn’t vote their way, you see.

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  2. T.S. Avatar
    T.S.

    Even worse than identifying this (or any) problem with only TWO data points, is proposing a solution with ZERO data points showing that the solution will be effective. Perhaps my biggest complaint (though there are many) about our election of this administration is that BUSINESS leaders and GOVERNMENT leaders are not equivalent, but our public seems to not understand that concept. If you manufacture 10 models of widgets, in 10 departments, and one is underperforming, you cut that department, and that’s good for business. If your government has 10 departments, and one is underperforming, the “cut that department” model fails. A business leader doesn’t want their neighbors with a competing product to succeed. Their failure equals your gain in the capitalist game of Monopoly. In government, making your neighbors fail is NOT a zero-sum game where you benefit from others’ failures in a 1:1 ratio. In business, eliminating waste should directed toward the path that leads to greatest income. In government, eliminating waste (still a noble cause) should be focused on not wasting opportunities to SERVE/DISTRIBUTE. At the end of the day, your government should take exactly the amount needed to provide agreed-upon services, whereas a business should (and has a duty to) take as much as they’re able.

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