Between banning books and gutting school funding, Donald Trump seems to have a simple philosophy: If kids can’t read, they can’t read the indictments against him either.
It sounds like a typical conservative talking point. The kind paraded around since Reagan or the one your uncle brings up at Thanksgiving dinner as one way to get the “damn government” out of his life.
But eliminating the Department of Education isn’t about reducing bureaucracy – it’s about ensuring that the populace isn’t educated enough to challenge the corrupt politicians and unelected billionaires stripping away their rights.
When the Department of Education was originally created in 1979, it was to “[ensure] access to equal educational opportunity for every individual.” In the 90s it was instrumental in the creation of a standardized federal form for high school students seeking aid for college – FAFSA.
In 2022, 70% of college students were awarded some form of financial aid, with most of it coming through FAFSA, amounting to an average of $10,677 per student, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
When the Department of Education goes, so too does FAFSA. And that means that many students – those not in the upper class – might be forced to drop out.
Almost three in every five college students have considered dropping out due to financial stress and 53% say financial aid is a key reason why they can continue to stay in college, according to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrations.
And that’s exactly Trump’s plan. He’s said that colleges need to be reclaimed from “Marxist maniacs,” and Vice President JD Vance has described universities as “the enemy.”
It’s not just colleges Republicans want to get rid of. Former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore openly opposed all preschools because they make children “much more likely to learn a liberal social and political philosophy.”
Republicans are putting their anti-intellectualism on full display, a key basis of fascist ideology. Mussolini-era philosopher Giovanni Gentile once said intellectualism was “a sickness” which fascism could combat.
Hatred for intellectuals shows up in many authoritarian countries throughout history, such as during the Cambodian genocide when the Khmer Rouge was so intent on exterminating them that “Cambodians wearing eyeglasses were killed because [they] thought only intellectuals wore eyeglasses,” according to a book by Elizabeth Becker, who reported on the genocide.
Anti-intellectualism is founded on the belief that if people aren’t educated, they can’t speak out against the atrocities being committed. After all, it’s harder to call out modern day racial inequalities if you’re taught that slaves “gained skills” that helped them in life. And that’s exactly what’s being taught in Floridian textbooks, according to the Guardian.
Now, Trump wants to make that the nationwide standard. One of his latest executive orders will revoke all federal funding from any school that “indoctrinates their children in radical, anti- American ideologies.” In other words, teaching history Trump disproves of.
For as much as he pretends to hate indoctrination, Trump seems to be particularly interested in indoctrinating the next generation of America into conservative values – even if, like “bringing back prayer into our schools,” it was ruled unconstitutional in 1962.
Another way Trump plans to ensure those values get taught in schools is by promoting universal school vouchers – which allow parents to use public school funds to pay for religious schools.
Ironically, while he claims that eliminating the Department of Education will cut back on government regulations in schools, Trump continues to impose more of them.
Eliminating the department is just another way Trump can bring his policies, which echo those laid out in Project 2025, into fruition. Less bureaucracy is just code for less people with morals standing in the way of Trump imposing his view of Christian morality on every student in America.
Republicans aren’t attacking the very basis of American education to reduce federal spending, otherwise they’d be clamoring to cut military spending, which made up 47% of all discretionary funding in fiscal year 2022. They’re attacking it because the fewer college degrees you hold, the more likely you are to vote Republican, according to a survey by Pew Research.
Gutting the Department of Education is just another way that Trump plans to maintain his grip on the country. A less educated populace is more susceptible to propaganda and easier to manipulate. By ensuring that high schoolers can’t afford to go to college, it ensures that they can’t recognize their own oppression.