Paul Ellertson, online publishing coordinator
The Trump administration wants to erase nationwide Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs because he believes that if students want opportunities, they have to earn them. This is extremely unfair — unless you’re white. White people are generally given far more opportunities just by existing as white people. In this system of white supremacy, if a student isn’t white, they are far more likely to struggle which makes it hard to stay afloat, let alone actually earn anything. It’s very interesting how the Trump administration tries to whitewash and sugarcoat the reasons for these rules.
Linda McMahon, Trump’s would-be-secretary of the Department of Education — assuming she gets confirmed — claims that teachers don’t want politics in the classroom, according to NPR. This is coming from someone who doesn’t have any experience in education and wants to do things like shove Bibles down peoples’ throats and take away everyone’s rights — with the exception of white hetero-cis males. Forcing certain ideologies on people while taking certain people’s rights away is very political. Not only that, it goes against part of the Department of Education’s mission, which is to protect people’s rights no matter what.
During McMahon’s confirmation hearing, Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator from Alaska, emphasized that the Department of Education isn’t allowed to tell educators what to teach, saying that kind of “control is illegal under federal law,” according to NPR.
The Trump administration sent out a four-page letter that basically tells public schools they have two weeks to stop using race in their decisions when it comes to admissions. This would mean schools can’t give opportunities to students who aren’t white according to USA Today. Students who aren’t white still struggle more in school than white students on average. DEI programs elevate the racial disparities a little bit, but with DEI potentially becoming non-existent in the near future, the disparities will be even greater.
It’s very odd to see Trump and the far-right trying to fight battles they technically lost years ago. It’s unfortunate that this time, they might actually win some of these battles which would take us back to times that were known to be extremely racist and discriminatory. Schools have been trying for years now to increase racial diversity and the Trump administration is saying “NO” to that. Trump is twisting his rhetoric to make his words sound better to those listening who aren’t as well educated and aren’t able to think critically.
Trump is twisting his rhetoric to make his words sound better to those listening who aren’t as well educated and aren’t able to think critically.
paul Ellertson
This feels like another example of Trump’s idiocy, because, even if he does know what the Department of Education can and can’t do, he seems to think he can just override the system because he feels like it. In the near future at least, the Department of Education may not be able to provide as much funding to schools that don’t cooperate with Trump’s requests.