Photo by Darren Halstead

The Supreme Court’s green light to the Trump administration to destroy the federal Department of Education via mass firings is an anti-working-class agenda. To be clear, I define the working class as the majority of U.S. society, born in America or abroad, the 99 percent that the Occupy Movement popularized.

See the current political economy of worsening social inequality and recall American history, please. Take the era of Reconstruction after the Civil War. Newly freed slaves demanded and received tax revenue to fund public schools for blacks and whites in the former Confederate states. The slavocracy bitterly opposed such progress for the working class. For more details, I recommend W.E.B. DuBois’ book, Black Reconstruction in America.

I did not learn this working-class history in public school. I did, however, have an opportunity to take classes in ethnic history as a high school sophomore. Therein lies the threat of public education: an informed citizenry that can think and act in their social class interests. The ruling order wants no part of that.

Ethnic studies emerged out of the working-class struggles in the 1950s and 1960s against the color line and foreign war. Nobody in the one percent gave ethnic studies in public education as a gift to working Americans. That is not how class society operates.

We turn to National PTA President Yvonne Johnson and National PTA Executive Director Howie Berman on what firing an estimated 40 percent of Department of Education employees means. “The Supreme Court’s ruling allowing mass layoffs in the U.S. Department of Education is a severe threat to public school students and families in our country. The U.S. Department of Education was created to ensure equal access to education for all Americans—regardless of zip code, ability, race or economic circumstance. Programs and funding streams administered by the Department of Education—including disbursement of Title I funding, grants through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the Office of Civil Rights—serve students and families most in need of vital supports. Diminishing the capacity of the Department of Education to effectively administer federal funding and support states and school districts with program implementation will leave millions of children and families behind.”

Meanwhile, a ruling few are pursuing a smash-and-grab strategy to take income and wealth from the many. Their assets shift to a few, relatively speaking, of billionaires and corporations. One way is college student debt of $1.77 trillion in 2024, after declining in 2023.

In the meantime, federal funding for education is a waste of taxpayer resources, according to the Supreme Court. In contrast, Uncle Sam is hiking the funding of immigration detention centers to benefit for-profit private prison companies. One is the CoreCivic Corp. Another private for-profit prison company is The Geo Group Inc.Here’s the Sacramento Poor People’s Campaign on this militarizing trend weakening education and much else that helps the working class.

“Federal funds, such as those from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, have been given to local governments to buy military equipment. This military equipment has often caused casualties and serious harm to poor communities and communities of color. In addition, our local purchasing of military equipment helps to fund our bloated national military budget, which drains money away from programs that support desperately needed human services, such as housing, medical care, education, and basic national infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, and the electrical grid.”

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