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By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher
WASHINGTON, D.C.- President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Thursday to shut down the U.S. Department of Education, fulfilling a campaign promise he made to Republicans on the campaign trail on his way to winning a second, non-consecutive term in November and angering Congressional Democrats, educators, teachers unions, public-school parents and some city mayors, including in Cleveland, Ohio.
But the president's unprecedented efforts to radically change America's educational system require Congressional approval.
Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that all executive orders from the president of the United States must be supported by the Constitution, whether from a clause granting specific power or by Congress delegating such to the executive branch.
Signed Thursday, the president's agency wrecking order instructs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take “all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the states.”
McMahon is an unqualified, corporate big wig with no experience in education whatsoever, her critics say.
No modern-day president has attempted to shut down a government agency and Trump will have to convince Congressional Republicans to endorse the measure with affiliated legislation as Democratic lawmakers, labor unions and an avalanche of other opponents gear up for a fight ripe with lawsuits, organized protests nationwide, and community engagement strategies.
Opponents argue that the U.S. Department of Education serves a fundamental purpose that should not be usurped by an irresponsible president with no background or experience in crafting, much less implementing educational policy for the nation's school children.
Core responsibilities of the U.S. Department of Education have included distributing federal financial aid for education, collecting data on schools, identifying major educational issues, enforcing federal education laws, prohibiting discrimination, and implementing congressional education legislation.Trump says those responsibilities should rest with the states.
Ohio has struggled with educational equity issues for decades, if not eternity, including a public-school funding formula that the Ohio Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional in its 1997 DeRolph decision. Here the court found that Ohio's public school funding formula violates the requirement in Ohio's Constitution to provide all of Ohio's children "access to a thorough and efficient education."
Ohio's Republican-dominated state legislature, however, ignored court orders to revise its formula that caters to upper-middle-class and rich school districts with resources to pay more property taxes. The court ultimately said compliance with its orders was not needed, a posture that opponents say was designed to appease school districts that complained the orders presented a Robin Hood effect where the rich are penalized to accommodate the poor.
Meanwhile, poor school districts in Ohio continue to receive less monies per student than affluent districts as private school vouchers expand via state legislation pushed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, a voucher advocate and former U.S. senator.
The city of Cleveland, Ohio's second-largest city behind Columbus, has had its problems relative to addressing disparities with respect to poor children and Black children, at least historically.
Cleveland has the only private school voucher program sanctioned by the U.S. Supreme Court where the high court, in Zelman vs. Simmons-Harris, ruled in 2002 that because Cleveland's school voucher program is religiously neutral and the voucher monies go to the parents and not the students it does not violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the use of public monies for private and religious education.
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, the city's fourth Black mayor who was elected president of the Democratic Mayor's Association in January, stopped short of calling the president a racist, vowed to fight back with community support, and said the president's actions will likely take millions from Cleveland schools. He publicly denounced Trump's efforts to dismantle the Department of Education in a Facebook post on Thursday that is posted below.
Remembering the Cleveland schools desegregation era
The city's public schools were under a now-defunct desegregation court order that was instituted in 1980 after the school district and the state of Ohio were found guilty of operating a dual school system to the detriment of Black children and their families.
Simply put, west-side students, most of them White, received more resources than largely Black east- side students. The two sides of town are separated by the Cuyahoga River, making Cleveland the second most segregated major American city in the nation, behind Boston, Massachusetts.
The 12 remedial orders associated with the deseg order, issued by then U.S. District Court Judge Frank Battisti, included cross-town-busing, desegregation of school staff and administrators, and mandated parental involvement programs. Cross-town busing was eliminated in 1996 by order of the court.
The court order was lifted entirely in 1998 when the mayoral control law, pushed by Republican state lawmakers, took effect amid community protests and after then U.S. District Court Judge George White ruled that the vestiges of racial discrimination had been remedied to the extent practicable as required by the court order and the educational disparities between Black school children and their White counterparts were the result of socioeconomic factors.
Activists complained that the law handing the mayor control of the schools minimized the qualifications for central office staff, eliminating the requirement for certification for positions such as superintendent, which is now deemed by title a CEO and president, assistant superintendent, and directors and supervisors over departments like education, science, English and math.
Suburban school districts require such certifications and Black activists said that not requiring the same qualifications in a largely Black school district like Cleveland is racist and a step backwards since the desegregation of schools that the elected board fought against before being found guilty decades ago of mistreating Black children and their families. Some activists who complained were harassed, arrested and maliciously prosecuted by the city on bogus, trumped-up charges, an investigation reveals, though further research reveals that it allegedly occurred prior to Bibb winning election in 2021 for a first-term.
The Cleveland NAACP, led by attorney James Hardiman, fought in court against release from the deseg court order but to no avail. A brilliant lawyer by some standards, Hardiman argued that the vestiges of racial discrimination had not been remedied and that Black children were still at risk.
Cleveland's mayor, whether Bibb, 37, or anyone else, controls the city's public schools and appoints board of education members under state law, and with that, said sources, comes glory and sometimes despair, and an enormous amount of power.
The city's second youngest mayor, Bibb is up for reelection this year and is the fourth mayor in office since mayoral control took effect in 1998, behind former mayors Michael R. White, Jane Campbell and Frank Jackson, Bibb's immediate predecessor, and the city's third Black mayor.
Regarding educational outcomes pertaining to Cleveland's majority Black schools, the buck stops with the mayor, sources said Thursday.
Kathy Wray Coleman is a longtime Cleveland journalist, blogger, digital and social media reporter, and seasoned investigative reporter
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com are the most-read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel. 216-659-0473. Email-editor@clevelandurbannews.com
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