President Trump campaigned on shutting down the Department of Education. However, seeing it happen, with the department laying off about half of its workforce, sends shockwaves through the local education community and through many families.
The DOE provides about a billion dollars combined to the Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe County school districts. Much of that money goes to support Title One schools, which are schools where at least 40% of the students are from low-income families. Another major chunk of funding provides resources for children who have disabilities.
“I think parents of students with disabilities are absolutely on the edge right now,” said Jacqui Luscombe, who is one of those parents.
She chairs Broward’s ESE Advisory Council, and Luscombe is extremely concerned about where the cuts to the DOE might lead.
“When your child’s education and rights and future are at stake it all combines into this perfect storm of just desperate worry for parents,” Luscombe said.
The Secretary of Education, former wrestling executive Linda McMahon, confirmed her department was slashing half of its staff.
“What we did today was take the first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat,” McMahon said on Fox News.
The Miami-Dade School Board on Wednesday discussed sending a message to the DOE.
“I just want us to say, please keep giving us this money, we’re putting it to good use,” said board member Joe Geller.
Board members, though, are not united on the impact of the cuts.
“It is a concern when you decimate a department with that many employees that provide critical services throughout the nation,” said board member Dr. Steve Gallon.
Board member Roberto Alonso has a different view.
“At this moment we haven’t seen any cuts to the actual programs, I think this might actually open up the opportunity to get additional funding because as we become more efficient and leaner at the federal level, it should allow those dollars to come directly to the states,” he said.
I asked the past president of the Florida PTA, Latha Krishnayier, how local school districts can replace what the DOE does if the department shuts down
“They cannot, where would they get the money from unless the state funds it, and the state has constantly underfunded education,” she said.
Krishnayier is a Broward parent. She points out the layoffs sever connections between teachers, administrators and the technical support staff at the DOE.
“How is that gonna impact the services that we’re able to provide, especially to our most vulnerable, like our economically disadvantaged schools through Title One, our special need students through the IDEA, we just don’t the impact and it’s very hard for us to think of a strategy to protect our students,” added Rebecca Thompson, Broward school board member.
Thompson said the cuts are being done in Washington without thinking about their impacts on schools, children, and families.
The move to abolish the DOE is not about education policy, since the DOE does not dictate curriculum policy to school districts, each state does that independently. The DOE’s mission is to provide resources, protect the rights of disabled kids, and to enforce those rights when they are violated.
