“The federal government doesn’t want to be responsible for public education in any capacity,” CEA President Kate Dias told Brian Shactman on 1080 WTIC this morning.
Speaking about the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education, she continued, “There’s this thinking that education is a state’s responsibility only and managing education at that level will improve efficiencies. That’s just a misguided understanding of what the Department of Education was designed to do. It’s a failure to execute on a mission they don’t even understand.”
Dias says the way that this administration is funneling education dollars through other agencies will result in less fiduciary oversight and less follow through.
“This current administration is more interested in cronyism—the idea, that, ‘Hey, I need to make sure my buddies are getting their piece of the pie.’ It’s part of the reason we’ve seen some of the Silicon Valley bros emerge with so much power. This is an attempt to really move toward privatization and get some of the education dollars into the hands of people that don’t necessarily have the best interests of kids in mind. We’ve seen time and time again when we privatize public education or other public goods like health care that it doesn’t help people.”
Dias said that a lot of what the Department does is ensure equity of access for all students and accountability for how education dollars are spent.
“The department exists to support families who feel like they’re not getting their needs met in the public education system,” she said. “Now, we don’t know if money will get to where it’s supposed to go. We don’t know if there’s going to be any accountability structures if we have questions or concerns. To some extent, we’re waiting this out to see what the true impact will be and how we can respond to best support our students.”
