The Department of Education is a key funder for the Clarke County School District through the Title I program. However, United States President Donald Trump has already begun to dismantle the program. “What his irrational plan doesn’t take into account is the millions of dollars that would be stripped away from schools to supply these resources — in turn, robbing vital opportunities such as Title I from students.” Illustration by Sylvia Robinson
President Donald J. Trump’s push to abolish the United States Department of Education is a direct attack on public education and a danger to the CCSD community.
On April 12, 1965, Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
The program, which was created in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement and funded by the United States Department of Education (DOE), addressed disparities in the public education system by funding public schools across the nation with a high percentage of students from low-income families.
Today, Title I continues to supply schools with federal money to hire additional staff, offer after-school programs and allow for smaller class sizes — benefits that extend to the Clarke Country School District, where all 21 schools have Title I programs.
But, after 60 years of working to close education gaps, President Donald J. Trump has made a dangerous vow that the Republican Party has been promoting since the 1980s: abolish the U.S. DOE.
On Feb. 3, the Trump administration confirmed efforts were underway for an upcoming executive order that would dismantle the program. The vision: to remove federal regulation from public education.
“I believe strongly in school choice, but in addition to that I want the states to run schools,” Trump said at an Oval Office conference on Feb. 4.
What his irrational plan doesn’t take into account is the millions of dollars that would be stripped away from schools to supply these resources — in turn, robbing vital opportunities such as Title I from students.
“If it became a reality, Trump’s power grab would steal resources for our most vulnerable students, explode class sizes, cut job training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle class families, take away special education services for students with disabilities, and gut student civil rights protections,” Becky Pringle, the president of the National Education Association, said in an NBC News news brief.
But this decision’s implications wouldn’t remain in the abstract – the CCSD would be caught in the crossfire and face immediate consequences.
According to the Grady Newsource, Clarke Central High School received $341,568 in Title I funding. Of this, $270,078 was used for teacher’s salaries, while the remaining was distributed among “instructional support, including supplies, professional learning, travel, and family engagement.”
This decision’s implications wouldn’t remain the abstract — the CCSD would be caught in the crossfire.
Programs at CCHS designed to support students that derive funding from Title I include, but are not limited to, after-school tutoring, summer school, Academic Support Specialists, counselors, full-time nurses and parent conferences.
These would be among the first to suffer.
Trump’s plan is a direct attack on addressing the systemic issues that have been rooted in the U.S. public education system since its founding. Eliminating federal aid to low-income schools isn’t “power to the states,” it’s power taken from the educational opportunities available to the students who need it most.
Unfortunately, we are those students. If this administration cares about equality of opportunity, it will retain the DOE and Title I funding, lest CCHS and the CCSD suffer the consequences.
