this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2025
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United States | News & Politics

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Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that instructs the US education secretary, Linda McMahon, to start dismantling the Department of Education, seemingly attempting to circumvent the need to obtain congressional approval to formally close a federal department.

The administration may eventually pursue an effort to get Congress to shut down the agency, Trump said at a signing ceremony at the White House on Thursday, because its budget had more than doubled in size in recent years but national test scores had not improved.

The federal government does not mandate curriculum in schools; that has been the responsibility of state and local governments, which provide 90% of the funding to schools. Nevertheless, at the White House, Trump repeated his campaign promise to “send education back to the states”.

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[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago

They are turning America into what they turned the Middle East into, a nation run by zealous Christian oligarchs, where women have no rights and where the most important thing above even education and justice is your faith.

[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 5 points 8 hours ago

The "dumb American" stereotype is about to become reality.

[–] krolden@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I like how people will say "he can't do that" but do nothing to prevent it

[–] Xavienth@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 10 hours ago

"911, there's a murderer in my house!"

"Oh, no worries, he can't do that. It's illegal. Take care."

[–] muxika@lemm.ee 2 points 8 hours ago

As a teacher and parent with special-needs children, I am absolutely devastated. It's not a surprise from the party of family values, though. You can feel the disdain from conservative parents, and even from some of the students.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 42 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 10 hours ago

Bruh, how did you get a photograph of me?

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 34 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

Every Trump announcement or headline no longer means anything to me about this orange beanbag.

Instead, every headline reflects to me just how stupid the American people are. They are literally being fleeced and sodomized by a group of idiots and they just lie there taking it all.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 10 points 22 hours ago (4 children)

Many of us are calling and writing our Senators and Representatives daily and protesting often. There are protests in NYC almost every day.

[–] TheCriticalMember@aussie.zone 8 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

They'll make protesting illegal before it changes their minds. Hope you're all planning for that.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world -2 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (2 children)

The Constitution defines power of the President. If Trump disables the Constitution without a 2/3 state ratification, he demotes himself from POTUS to old guy who can’t take a punch.

[–] That_Devil_Girl@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 hours ago

Laws are only as good as their enforcement mechanisms. And if there are no enforcement mechanisms... well...

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

That's not how autocracy works, my friend.

[–] Grapho@lemmy.ml 18 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

Many of us are calling and writing our Senators

I don't mean to be rude, but this is part of the ignorance. They've given you ample proof that they don't and will never give a shit.

All these people understand is money and violence. Do you have as much money as the people paying for both Dems and Republicans?

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 6 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

So it’s ignorant to use the avenues of influence at my disposal? It’s only ignorant if I expect results. It’s more ignorant to expect them to know what their constituents want without informing them.

What do you propose we do instead?

[–] Grapho@lemmy.ml 12 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

It absolutely is if you're constantly taking an hour of your day writing or on hold to speak to a guy who has historically never done anything you've asked them to (but blames it on a dude he works with, both of whom get elected on the dime of the same guy).

Take that time to join a worker's organization, or organizing to unionize your workplace, or engaging in mutual aid, or anything that isn't talking to the guy whose job is making sure workers think they have any influence over him instead of the people paying him, who always get whatever bills they want passed. The data is loud and clear.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

I’m currently disabled, but I can get out for a few hours at a time. I use that to protest. Daily messaging takes ~5 minutes. Each call takes 15-20 minutes including wait time. I’m all ears if you have any other suggestions.

[–] Grapho@lemmy.ml 9 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I didn't say the protests were a waste of time, writing to congress is. Worker's organizations include a lot of disabled people and they actually do care, unlike democrats. Membership in a third party (that can also use all the help they can get and are actually engaging in mutual aid and not just profiteering) is the only way voting can get you anything from Dems, because as long as you vote for them they have all they want from you.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I’m still in support of replacing deadwood centrist Democrats with progressives. I personally believe we have a better chance in raising the primary and midterm voter turnout up from its current 20%, than to rally a state as big as NY behind a third-party in 18 months.

[–] Grapho@lemmy.ml 9 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

Midterms are meaningless. What have Dems done to stop this? Absolutely jack shit. What did they do on his first term to mitigate the damage? Take some pictures and write some tweets?

Donald Trump is willing to rule by decree and push his policies by force of arms if necessary. Short term "pragmatism" is exactly what led to this and it'll just dig a deeper hole.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

They don’t have the majority votes to challenge an executive order. They motioned for a 15-day vote against Trump’s emergency order, and the Republican majority redefined the entire congressional calendar as a single day to avoid checking the President’s power. I disagree with the 10 Senators that voted in favor of the CR, but that wouldn’t have actually stopped anything. POTUS determines what essential departments remain open in a government shutdown. DOGE would keep cutting, ICE would keep deporting, and POTUS would keep writing executive orders.

With that being said, I’m not in favor of more of the same. I simply think cleaning out and upgrading the Democratic Party is the better option with FPTP.

[–] z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml 2 points 19 hours ago

No, I also don't have as much violence as they do either.

[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 0 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Yeah, so many dictators abdicated because they realized their people didn't like them. It really hurt their feelings.

You can't complain a dictator out of power.

[–] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

I’m not complaining to the dictator. I’m complaining to the people that have the ability to check his power from Congress.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

Every now and then I write Ted Cruz a letter. Sometimes he sends me back a bullshit letter about something entirely different. At least he responds sometimes though unlike the other fuck head.

[–] hyperhopper@lemmy.world 5 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

No, the majority of them don't lie there and take it, they are cheering and shouting "More! More!"

[–] ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago

This is ridiculous and untrue. There are a lot of crazy shitheads in our country, but they definitely are not the majority.

[–] pzzzt@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago

The ones that affect you directly hit the hardest.

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 19 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (2 children)

This sounds like some horrendous Taliban level shit but living in a federal system myself (Australia), k-12 education is primarily a state responsibility here as I believe it is in the US. I wouldn't want to see this happen in my own country but it wouldn't be the same as closing down the department of education in an unfederated country like New Zealand or most European nations where it would be disastrous.

Inconsistencies between states here (Australia) used to negatively impact students moving between states and entering tertiary education. Federal systems can be grossly inmeficient and full of duplication and barriers between states.

Unfortunately not having national standards is probably going to increase economic disadvantage in already disadvantaged red states which will only increase division in the US.

[–] oxysis@lemm.ee 10 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

K-12 schools here are mostly handled by the states just like yours. But what this will mean is that FASFA will go in the near future, don't believe what the MAGAts will say about it being left alone because it will not last. They will likely try to kill it quickly in a few weeks or a few months if we are lucky. Without FASFA hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of current and future college students will not be able to afford to attend college and university. Private students loans are hyper predatory and not an option for the vast majority of students.

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 8 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

I wasn't aware of FASFA. I just looked at the distribution of funds by state and it looks like this is an overwhelming loss for red states, far worse than I expected.

I know the US is fucking weird politically and culturally but anywhere else I would say if MAGA don't accelerate the transition from populism to authoritarianism they are leaving the door open to an alternative populist movement to give them a real thrashing in their heartland.

[–] Volkov@lemmy.ml 5 points 21 hours ago

Our system does not allow for the creation of real competing political parties outside of the 2 party system, and the Democrats are a controlled opposition with right of center politics, so this will never happen here

[–] alekwithak@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

It's really no different here, i experienced it first hand as a kid moving between states. My gifted classes in a North Carolina elementary school were equivalent to several grade levels lower in Florida. The Dept. of Education is mostly about setting minimum standards, ensuring equal access, making sure children aren't discriminated against, and other regulations.

[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

As if newer American generations didn't already have enough reasons to refrain from starting families and having children. I'm sure this is going to turn that trend right around.

[–] arrow74@lemm.ee 8 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Well boys see you on the front lines when we get shipped to Canada.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 10 hours ago

They wouldn't dare. If they drafted kids to fight fucking Canada there would be more defections than Canadian casualties.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I don't really hold a lot of innate respect for the founding fathers of this country. I mean some of them individually of course but as a whole I don't think they were special or more enlightened than other people. However even I have to wonder what it would be like to go back to the past and show them this. Just see how they would react. Surely even a bunch of rich white land owning men would see problems with this right?

[–] adm@lemm.ee 3 points 17 hours ago

I like to think they would. Not because they were anti capitalist but because the wealthy have become their own kind of nolble class and the founding fathers hated the nobility. They were capitalists that designed a system that was intended to give the greatest number of people an even opertunity to pursue capital. They didn't consider the idea of economic capture of government. I can't blame them. It's a pretty modern idea. alien idea for their time. Even if they had, it's late stage capitalism. It doesn't play by the rules. Also, respect for Thomas Paine.

[–] warrenson@lemmy.nz 4 points 22 hours ago

They're gonna do what they did with BMI, basically make an F a passing grade.