Since it's establishment in the '60s, the Department of Education has primarily been used to ensure that every student gets a fair chance at being prepared for the competitive fields that await them globally.They have programs that provide loans, grants and work study for students in higher education, student debt relief, minorities, and recently, special education in public schools. They also had a huge involvement during the Civil Rights Movement with Race and national origin discrimination laws and more recently, disability discrimination laws.
Despite all the programs and promises, our students still fall relatively low when stacked against students in other countries. And though the department has played it's role in trying to achieve equity, many schools still face discriminatory school-to-prison pipeline techniques (e.g. unnecessary in school suspension), lack of adequate teachers, schools closing and many other things that contribute to the low test results for many minority students.
There are many that blame the Federal Government — like The US Parents involved in Education (US PIE), who launched a campaign earlier this year in Des Moines, IA called "Stop Fed Ed" in hopes to defund the department altogether. Of course they are not alone, in a 10-year period, from 2003 to 2013, parents choosing to homeschool their children has gone up by a whopping 61.8%, according to the Dept. of Education. But what does any of this have to do with students of color who are stuck with faultless disadvantages like those in Flint, Michigan?
Well, the story of Flint has been going on well before media caught wind of it, and if you don't know what's going on, let me brief you: Since April 2014, the citizens of Flint have been forced to cope with water flowing from the Flint River, which unfortunately is not the most sanitary and along with corrosion in the pipes, has lead to numerous being poisoned and some dead. If it's not already painful enough for students of color to be taught a very filtrated and euro-centric curricula, the students of Flint have to sit in dilapidated buildings, slowly drawing in poison with each breath, while trying to get that fair education they were promised. Then you have Darnell Earley, who not only led the switch of a cheaper water supply, but is also in charge of the public school system. And if that's not enough to make you go "hmm," check out President-elect Donald Trump's choice for Secretary of Education.
Betsy DeVos has been a well "hidden" figure in the destruction of Flint and its public school system, and why wouldn't she be? She, like Donald Trump and Gary Johnson, highly favors school choice — which includes private schools that can be selective in it's processing — from religion to socioeconomic status, and charter schools which create their own disproportions in academic performance alone.
DeVos and her family have done their damnedest to strip clean monetary resources from public schools in Michigan, they only stand to gain. This is what happens when pro-corporation figures with money for days can buy their politicians and policies. Students are left in the dust, and even though the education system is undoubtedly in need of restructuring, appointing a far-right money-hungry figurehead causes stagnancy.
The appointment of DeVos will further the gap many minorities already face, and if you don't have the funds, you can't exactly just up and move to a location with better quality education. You especially can't do that if your home can't legally be sold because of something like lead poisoning. You can't be like Kelley Williams, a mom in Ohio who had to lie about her residency to allow her kids to get into a better school district, without being locked up for it. So what do we do?
Without the possible protection of the Department of Education, DeVos, and the rise of school choice, minorities, especially those in poor areas like Flint, will be left with no options but to endure their poor environments and lack of funding for quality education. And after the election we just bore witness to, the last thing that needs to happen is our education being solely controlled locally or by the states — we will be left behind. So, are we heading into those dark times, falling farther down the academic rankings list? Unfortunately, I think Trump and DeVos just might lead us down that path.
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