On February 24, 2024, Donald Trump said, “I love the poorly educated.” He is determined to do away with the Department of Education to make sure that we have more “poorly educated” than we do now. What Trump is not saying is that Education Department funding helps states ensure all their kids have access to an education. To accomplish his goal, he is counting on you, and parents across the country, to be uninformed about the impact this will have on your day-to-day life.
Trump’s Project 2025, you know, that thing he said he didn’t know about…., will gut funding to education. The plan is to eliminate the Department of Education. Trump has signed an executive order instructing the U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education,” and to do so “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.” Before that, the department had already said that it was shrinking its workforce by nearly half, with cuts to all divisions.
This decision will have a devastating effect on rural schools in Alabama. Alabama receives a total of about $2.6 billion in revenue from the U.S. Department of Education for K-12 schools and colleges, according to AL.com. Community colleges typically rely the most on federal funds, with some earning more than half of their revenue from the federal government. How many of us would have had the resources to further our education after high school if not for the federal grants?
State Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey said some programs have already been terminated. One of those programs, the Farm to School Program, brings locally grown veggies to cafeterias. Marion County High School in Guin, Alabama, has a little garden on campus.
On the K-12 side, rural, high-poverty districts like those in District 4 can get as much as $8,000 per pupil in federal funds that play an outsize role in helping high-needs schools get money to stay afloat. Some of our schools in District 4 are already suffering. Our teachers are taking money from their own pockets to buy classroom supplies. The free lunch program is vital to providing meals to children whose families cannot afford to pay for it. These kids cannot be expected to go all day without food and be productive in the classroom.
We can always count on the Alabama representatives to lick the boots of Trump and agree with whatever he comes up with, whether it is beneficial to Alabama or not. U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, and Robert Aderholt all celebrated Trump’s order with no regard to the effect it will have on the rural schools in our State. Senator Britt thinks that “educational freedom opens the door to the American dream.” How is this possible if there is no money to support school programs? Tuberville said, “The federal government doesn’t belong in the classroom, plain and simple.” District 4 Representative Robert Aderholt also agrees with dismantling the Department of Education. As always, he is out of touch with what is happening in his own District. He doesn’t even live in Alabama and his children attended a private elite school in Virginia where he lives.
Alabama is among the worst states in the nation when it comes to education. We depend heavily on federal funding because our State is considered one of the poorest in the country. Alabama receives millions in Title I funding, Pell Grants, and over $24 million in career and technical education grants, according to the National Education Association. This will have a big negative effect on low-income families who will not have the money to send their children to college or community college without the help from these departments.
Alabama public schools were already facing economic pressure as a result of the CHOOSE Act, a bill to privatize the state’s education system, which went into effect earlier this year. This law is taking money away from public education and transferring it to provide private school vouchers to wealthier Alabamians. The elimination of the Education Department, along with the CHOOSE Act, would likely leave Alabama’s public education system seriously underfunded.
According to the Constitution, it is up to Congress to eliminate executive agencies; however, have you noticed that Trump has no respect for the rule of law and that Congress is in his majority of spitting on the Constitution? If this goes into full effect, we will have a lot of the “poorly educated,” that will most likely lead to more poverty in Alabama. Without an education, the chance of a decent paying job is slim. Without a job, how do we keep a roof over our heads, food on the table, and clothes on our backs? It’s easy for these millionaire politicians to sit in their fine homes and come up with this crap. They will not feel the pain of it. But they can be voted out. This is how we save ourselves from this kind of destruction.
Lynda Kirkpatrick
Chair Marion County Democratic Party
Vice Chair Alabama Democratic County Chairs Association
House District 17 State Democratic Executive Committee