President Trump preps executive order to dismantle Education Department

It's easier to tear something down than to build something up.
On the off chance America ever has a presidential election again, whoever wins is gonna have a gargantuan job of fixing everything this asshole has dismantled.
- The damage being done this time around isn't fixable in a single term even with full congressional support.
  It's easier to tear something down than to build something up.
  True, but more precisely it's an order of magnitude harder to build than it is to destroy. Should there be a democratic administration after this they will find it impossible to put all these pieces back together in 4 years, and will get blamed for it like they always do, and lose again.
  The right has put themselves into a position where destruction and failure are a future political asset for them.
- Yeah, I don't honestly know how we could ever fix it. Because what do you even focus on? Fixing the system? Providing relief for those suffering?
  Republicans sure as shit would die before doing either and Democrats aren't effective most of the time. And when they try to be, every fucking thing gets blocked by shit bag Republicans.
  
  The system has to be rebuilt. Take the parts that worked, ditch the stuff that didn't. Overhaul everything.
  It's how the country was founded. It's not impossible. It's just a big, big task.
  
  2 party system, heh... But worry not -- soon it will be one country, one religion and one Trump.
- See it like this: the US actually was drowning in corruption, whoever is next will have the chance to build something good the right way, from the ground up

As the resident education PhD in the room, I'll just reiterate that this is bad, although it's complicated and it sounds like a lot of the mandatory things (e.g FAFSA for college) would be moved to Treasury or other departments. It's not as bad as getting rid of schools entirely, and it does have the added benefit of defanging Trump's education goals. Just, you know, there won't be transgender kids playing in girls sports if there's no girl's sports anymore since schools aren't required by the feds to have it.
The biggest blow will mostly be in civil rights and in research, honestly. Civil rights because it's funding is used as leverage to get schools not to discriminate on race, class, gender, etc, in so much so that you could even say sexual abuse under Title IX prevents teachers from diddling the kids. IDEA is also under them (that's the disabilities bill for schools) so you may see less or no additional assistance for people with autism, intellectual disabilities, etc.. In about a decade or two will actually lead to more crime and incarceration as education has a direct effect on reducing poverty and giving people purpose.
As you research, the DOE is a major contributor to education research, much in the same way as CDC was for health. I got my dissertation done using their data, and it is solid. They also provide grants to thousands of projects, and you can thank a lot of advancements in education to it, like improvements in pedagogy and establishing importance of after school programs and such. The system had some flaws, like rewarding grants based on established people only and ignoring young progressive researchers, but it was still better than nothing.
I think whatever damage he does can be undone and the department can be made better than it was because even I admit there's bloat and the current system could be a lot better if it wasn't so entrenched in neolib values. Lots of bullshit accountability stuff, similar to how we require hoops to jump through with welfare. Just, in the short term, it's going to be extra hard for parents in red states and rural counties in particular because they receive the most aid from the department.
- Thank you for this clear-eyed and thorough response. I appreciate you.
- The rural areas will just replace public schools with Christian schools.

Once this happens, isn't his threat about funding for schools that allow protests pretty much hollow?
- He will have the police arrest them instead of the threat of getting expelled or have the national guard shoot them. Just like they did during the Civil Rights Movement and during the Vietnam War.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings

It requires an act of Congress to dismantle it completely, so we're about to see just how much the R's in Congress either have bought into Trump's vision or think there is value in keeping his support. It's one thing to not say anything when a bunch of normal people are fired. It's a different thing to publicly vote to dismantle something normal need and care about.
- I feel confident they will continue the trend: supporting everything he does. They want fascism. They've stopped caring who knows.
- Yes, and that was HR 899, proposed in the House on Jan 31. More then a month ago.
  Did y'all miss that?
- I mean he can just fire all employees and withhold all money. I know it's unconstitutional, yes, but that doesn't mean anything anymore.

Anyone want to provide insight on what this would do to IEPs in schools? I know it doesn't change the law but it might get rid of all enforcement of said law.
- There will be no funding for special education as the majority of it comes from federal funds. So there won't be teachers to administer or evaluate IEPs.
  
  Real glad everyone I care about who had IEPs and 504 plans graduated already

Yeah, because that's what we need. A stupider populace.
- Tbf that is exactly what the Republicans want

What exactly will be impacted? I honestly have no idea what they currently do outside extra funding for states to allow everything to function properly. Also what are the American people benefitting from this exactly? As far as were concerned it's no change to us, so where is all this money going now, outside the pockets of some rich person? So gut everything and higher our taxes? I'm assuming state taxes will need to go higher to supplement more money for schooling which means even higher taxes again? I'm super thrilled my kids are the perfect age to see exactly the impact this will have on them soon... I wish I could leave so bad.
- They run the FAFSA student aid application system and manage trillions of dollars of student loans (Pell grants, etc). They provide guidance and funding to state education systems.
  Dismantling it will cause chaos in the student loan world. Who now owns the debt? (likely given to friends of Trump to get rich off of) Who approves new debt? (likely private loan firms who charge higher rates and don't approve high risk loans) Who will manage the existing network of thousands of colleges to help get aid to students? (likely nobody)
  Dismantling it also allows Republican states to further implement religious education and scrubbing from education curricula anything that isn't about straight, white people doing good things.
  
  When i read the article, it stated it will not touch grants as that is another department, but the person even says they are skeptical.
- They do all the national testing and data collections for determining school rankings.
  Which I think is the main thing they want to get rid of. They've said that all the school funding functions can be handed to other departments. But it's all the states with religious curriculum requirements that frequently do poorly on the rankings. And us in New Mexico. But by eliminating the DOE that data collection and ranking will stop.
  
  Basically the same exact tactic as "we eliminate new COVID cases by stopping to test for them", and Hungary also did this after they wrecked the public education by prioritizing religion (due to boomers thinking it'll teach children manners) and PE (due to a "lack of great sportsmen and football players", did the opposite) over everything else, in addition of funding cuts and reintroducing old and unusable teaching methods to please the boomers who think "the school isn't a playground", so kids would suffer more.
- I want to add to the other good answers that DoE is also responsible for enforcing special education in schools, along with all other protections against discrimination and support for low income families. This in particular helps red states more, usually, and is a big reason Congress hasn't acted when Reagan took office and had a hate boner for the department.
- I am guessing they will either give no federal funding to states or give it with no (good) strings attached. If they can figure out a way to punish blue states at the same time they will do that too. The DOE gives this money currently with strings attached, like requiring special Ed programs. They probably would come up with new horrifying strings attached, like removing climate science from curricula.
  I'm sorry about your children. I have a niece who I am concerned for. She grew up in a world where this is all "normal". I wish I could leave this shit hole too but it's difficult even without kids.

So McMahon would be out of a job, right? If there is no such department, they automatically lose their job?
Please tell me the absurdity of this is correct.
- That's what I was wondering too. Why hire or appoint the position, just to abolish it completely.
  Politics is so fucking stupid sometimes.

Already rescinded.
- This plan was?
  
  https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-preparing-executive-order-telling-education-secretary-dissolve/story?id=119499614

Unconstitutional
- That requires a constitution
  
  We got one. We are just watching one party testing the limits of the social contract that keeps this place going. I'm talking about how long people will abide their federal courts and Congress being shat upon.
- The education department is constitutional due to a loophole in the commerce section I believe. Though its heavily debated as to whether it should be a states right.
- If only that mattered.

president ~~Trump~~ Krasnov

I mean education is prosecuted at the state level anyway.