Accelerating U.S. educational system reform, the Trump Administration this past Tuesday announced sweeping changes to leadership structures in charge of educational programs. The move shifts education programs out of the U.S. Department of Education and into several new agencies using interagency agreements that do not require congressional action. While these actions accelerate the Trump administration’s commitment to reduce federal control over education, the US Department of Education will retain limited oversight.
According to the Official Announcement from the U.S.Department of Education, the most significant change is the Department of Labor’s new leadership of an interagency agreement, which covers programs within the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and some postsecondary programs.
Other agencies also gain new authority under the reforms: the Department of the Interior will lead Indian Education programs, and the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of State will assume a role with other education-related programs.
In a recent memorandum, CEO of Center of Education Reform Jeanne Allen informs Governors, State Chiefs, legislative leaders, and education innovators about what comes next.
According to Allen, public support for the DOE is supported by polling data, but contingent upon continued funding of K-12 education and “core student protections.” However, a national shift toward “autonomy meets purpose” requires innovation at every level, particularly the state and local district level. Models of success exist which present opportunities to improve outcomes and all that is required, according to Allen, is flexibility and application of CER’s simple formula: “Opportunity + Innovation = Results.”
Trump’s plan embraces decentralization of federal control and the return of education to the purview of individual states. While this implies greater flexibility, it also means uncertainty as each state struggles with different educational priorities and disparate outcomes. Each state must decide to what degree they will embrace innovation in the form of funding portability, private charter of faith-based schools, and flexible rather than one-size-fits-all curriculum.
In this transition, many states join CER in advocating for more flexible educational opportunities. Here in Alaska, rural villages with largely indigenous populations argue for more customized curriculums and programmatic flexibility. Urban school districts also appear too rigid and top-heavy with administration and union control over teaching standards. In her release, Jeanne Allen states:
“Today’s move is exactly what this Administration has said it would do: disrupt a federal system that hasn’t worked for students in decades…As we’ve argued repeatedly, the Department has become an obstacle—not a partner—to good education. Districts have increasingly become real estate, HR, and compliance operations rather than institutions centered on student learning. The recent UCSD analysis showing students with under 30% proficiency entering college is yet another stark reminder that the current model is broken.”
Allen adds that the traditional education establishment may resist the move. She urges leaders across the political spectrum to seize this moment:
“More than a thousand education groups draw their relevance, funding, and political power from the federal bureaucracy. They will predict disruption because it threatens their interests, not because it threatens students…This shift creates new space for every education leader — Republican, Democrat, independent — to rethink how they serve students. Washington should not dictate how every school in America operates. If this transition reduces bureaucracy and puts decisions closer to families, students will be the better for it.”
Just FYI, the current Secretary of Education is Linda McMahon, a world wide wrestling executive. Zero education experience. To underscore that, consider that she didn’t know what AI was. She referred to it as A1 – think steak sauce.
Hey genius, our education system is a mess, this is a fix where it is needed, not an acronym contest.
So what, Evan? You need only to say yes and smile! Let the boss do your the thinking: be grateful that you are a cog in the machinery–part of the meat grinder and not the meat!
That’s correct. A successful businesswoman who has not been brainwashed by the NEA to push critical race theory and sexual perversion on children.
Hmmmm. World Wide Wrestling Executive? I would say that might make her very qualified. 😉. So you heard her say A1? Or was a typo? Our public education system is a disaster. I like what the president is trying to do.
And?
Is she capable of managing an organization comprised of people with various backgrounds?
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Do you really think it requires a teacher to run the education department? No, it requires an individual that is capable of building an effective team of experts and letting them do their jobs.
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That argument is one of the most meaningless and inane that I have ever heard. The Federal Government Executive branch is full of executives that do not have measurable demonstrated experience in the field they are running. Their staff is what matters most, their ability to manage that staff is why they were hired.
Would you hire a plumber that doesn’t know that some pipe parts are called nipples and then giggles at it?
Would you hire an insider to reform a corrupt organization?
Yet you probably voted for Trump, he is the lead of the corruption in his presidency.
If the old plumber was intentionally smashing up my plumbing, I wouldn’t care if the new guy giggled about part names as long as he fixed my plumbing.
I do all my own plumbing work, and I have been giggling at “nipple” since I was 12 and first taught it was the correct word for that part.
More concerned about IDEA and going back to the Middle Ages where students are not socialized and are kept behind closed doors. If they are going to divert money from public school than social education workers may be monitoring the home school programs since the parents profit off it personally and there is no accountability for a percentage of the population.
That as ignorant as say that only someone with a wasted degree spent on library science is qualified to oversee who checks out a book and then painstakingly is able to put it back on a shelf when they return it. ( reference to Anchorage assembly not allowing a very capable and way over qualified individual
Good lord Evan. This lady and her husband went from broke to creating a business worth nearly $4 billion. She is 100x more educated Than most educators I know. MOST (Educators) should not be educating.
This seems encouraging for the education system if they concentrate on the basic subjects and directed by input from the parents in each state. It is a shame that students in the US are rated so low compared to so many other countries. It is in my opinion the problem with dictators in the hopefuly soon to be defunct NEA.
Until we have vouchers we will have no accountability and there will be no improvement. Simple as that.
Outstanding!!!!! The lobbyists and other leaches will squeal, but so be it. Maybe little Johnny and little Susie will someday once again be able to read and write cursive, understand our founding documents, how a REPUBLIC functions and how dangerous a true democracy really is.
They may even be able to do math again….
Amen sister. It would be great if they could actually count change back. Every time a young person counts change back to me correctly I feel like doing a happy dance.
Amen brother
Make American Education Great Again! No more indoctrination, no more common core and no more dummy down. No child left behind was a disaster.
Amen Ts
Homeschooling is the way unless you irreparably wipe every education union off the face of the earth.
Teaching the myths of the bible as if they are fact and don’t you dare ask questions or you will burn forever in hell is what intelligent thinkers call indoctrination.