Parents and teachers have voiced their opinions on Trump’s promise to abolish the Department of Education (ED) after a report showed math and science scores dropping.
President-elect Donald Trump has made abolishing the ED a key part of his second-term agenda, criticizing the department as unnecessary, ineffective and a weapon of the “woke” culture war.
In a campaign video, Trump said he wants states — not the federal government — to control America’s education system.
Jody Baldwin Stone, mother of three daughters Rhode Islandtold DailyMail.com that the US education system is failing its students – especially those with learning disabilities, as her two daughters were diagnosed with dyslexia.
She struggled for years to get her daughters into special education programs, even though federal benchmark assessments indicated they needed “urgent intervention.”
“We have an education system that is focused on a job program for adults,” Stone said.
‘Everything is based on the adults. I think we will see a return to focusing on what is best for students.”
The new report shows that U.S. students’ math and science scores took a hit between 2019 and 2023, with a focus on tests scored on a scale of zero to 1,000.
From 2019 to 2023, average fourth-grade math and science scores decreased by 18 and seven points, respectively, and average eighth-grade scores decreased by 27 and 19 points.
Jody Baldwin Stone, pictured with her youngest daughter, says America’s education system is failing its students, especially those with learning disabilities
“I would call these declines sharp and steep,” Peggy Carr, commissioner of a statistical agency at the US Department of Education, told The Guardian. Wall Street Journal.
State and local governments already provide 90 percent of education funding and set most regulations, curriculum guidelines and school policies.
But the ED does play a critical role in administering federal grant programs, enforcing civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination in federally funded schools, and collecting data on enrollment, school crime, staffing and more.
Stone said she was able to place her two daughters in schools that took their disabilities into account and even though they weren’t in the public school system during the testing years, “(the) writing had been on the wall for that for years.”
But it’s not just students with learning disabilities who struggle to keep up in school. Recent data shows that test scores are declining across the board.
TThe National Center for Education Statistics published the report on Wednesday, which collected data through the Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS).
TIMSS is an exam administered every four years to fourth and eighth graders from the US and other countries.
The scores turned out to be the biggest decline since the U.S. began participating in the test in 1995.
Student science scores in 2023 are not measurably different from those of 2019, although 4th graders’ scores are lower now than during the first TIMSS administration.
The declining scores were largely a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has closed schools across the country, the report said.
According to a UNESCO analysis, schools in the US were at least partially closed for longer than in many other countries, including all of Europe.
As a result, several countries outperformed American students in math and science, including Finland in math, England in science and Poland in both subjects among fourth graders.
Other high-scoring countries included Singapore and Japan.
While COVID-19 has exacerbated these declines, “something we need to worry about is that this isn’t just the impact of the pandemic,” Carr added.
Other factors at play include a mass exodus of teachers from the profession and spikes in student misconduct and absenteeism.
But Baldwin Stone believes the Department of Education’s bureaucracy plays a major role as she struggled to get her dyslexic daughters the services they need to thrive in school.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the ED program that allows states and local educational agencies to receive federal funds to assist in the education of students with disabilities.
IDEA recognizes 13 categories of disabilities that qualify for special education or IEPs – individualized education programs. Dyslexia falls under an umbrella category called ‘Specific Learning Disabilities’.
To be enrolled in an IEP, students must complete a lengthy process that begins with a referral from a parent or teacher, followed by evaluation and a meeting with the IEP team.
How long this takes varies by state, but Baldwin Stone said students can be stuck in the evaluation process for months or years.
Special educators work with students who have been diagnosed with learning disabilities. But getting children into these programs requires a long and difficult process, says a mother of dyslexic daughters
“It’s a terrible failure,” she said. ‘The bureaucracy is so big and so many children fail.
“They keep these kids out of special education and think they are stupid, when in reality they are some of the smartest kids.”
She is therefore in favor of abolishing the ED.
“It’s just the whole mechanism of how the Department of Education works – from the federal level and the state level to the local education authority level, the LEA, which is another term for district – is broken,” said Baldwin Stone.
“The whole thing is broken.”
But a special education teacher from New Jersey – who asked not to be named – told DailyMail.com that dismantling the emergency room would only cause more harm to students, especially those with learning disabilities.
“If (ED) were to disappear tomorrow, no one would be able to guarantee that students in schools would receive services such as speech therapy, counseling, occupational therapy or physical therapy,” she stated via email.
Without the ED protecting these services, parents would face an uphill battle in their fight to maintain support for their children with special needs, she added.
Trump will need congressional support to scrap the department — an uphill battle made even more challenging by the likely need for a supermajority — 60 of 100 senators
Furthermore, dismantling federal regulations on special education would mean that these programs vary widely from state to state.
“The uncertainty and variability would upend special education as it happens in this country,” the special education expert said.
But abolishing the ED would also affect students in regular classes, she clarified.
“Students who receive supplemental services at school may be forced into the general education system with little support, diverting attention from other students and creating an environment that is not conducive to learning for anyone.”
Additionally, “Without federal funding to level the playing field, lower-income students will be disproportionately affected,” she said.
“Schools run on property tax revenue, the federal government gives money to schools that cannot meet the demands of their students.”
As an educationist working on the front lines of the nation’s academic decline, she opposes Trump’s mission to abolish the ED.
“The (ED) is not without flaws, but getting rid of it completely would cripple an already overburdened system,” she said.
Trump will need support from Congress to scrap the department — an uphill battle made even more challenging by the likely need for a supermajority — 60 of 100 senators.
The idea has received significant support from the Republican Party and Republicans have a majority in the Senate. But they do not have sixty members in the Senate.
That means Trump would need at least a few Democrats to vote in favor of abolishing the agency — which is highly unlikely.
Last year, a vote to dissolve the ED failed as 60 Republicans and all Democrats voted down the proposal.
So Trump may not make good on his promise to get rid of the department during his second term.