Support education as nation gains nothing from ignorance

To the editor: Horace Mann, “Father of Education,” believed that education should be available to all children, free of charge, and funded by the state. Now, in 2024, a goal of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025’s is to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, a vow Donald Trump has repeated over and over on the campaign trail. Presently, 90% of children living in the United States go to public schools. State and local property taxes primarily fund public school systems. Despite what senatorial candidate Eric Hovde says, decisions such as what books are appropriate for students fall to local school boards and sometimes state governments, not the federal government. The Department of Education conducts research and offers guidance on best classroom practices and curriculum. Funds from the Department of Education help low-income students, students with disabilities and those with limited English proficiency. The department is responsible for managing federal financial aid programs, runs the federal work- study program and administers Pell grants to make college more affordable for low-income students. It issues regulations on how civil rights laws should apply to students. So what could happen if the Department of Education was abolished? For over 40 years, this agency has made a tremendous difference in the education of millions of students. The elimination of Title I would affect 180,300 teaching positions and 2.8 million students who need small group help in order to succeed. Over 800,000 preschoolers, toddlers and infants would lose early learning services if Head Start was eliminated. Free school meals, which provide food security to millions of children, would end. The Trump plan would seek to adopt universal school choice, offering vouchers for student to attend private schools. Unaccountable voucher schools are already siphoning off resources that can maintain and improve public schools. They also are able to refuse to admit children with disabilities. The idea of eliminating the Department of Education is terrifying to me. I believe strongly in education and support referendums as the one on the Nov. 5 ballot for the Shawano School District. What does our country gain if we have educational systems that don’t meet the learning needs of every one of its students? What does a government and we, the people, gain from a population that is uneducated? Leslie Lemerond, Shawano