Did Susie Wiles miss the Trump administration’s memo about their plans for America’s Department of Education?
On Saturday night, Trump’s chief of staff shared that she hopes an education system that positions America’s children to “meet the future” will be part of her legacy. Meanwhile, her boss is working to decimate the exact department that would make that legacy possible.
Wiles sat down with Lara Trump, wife of Eric and daughter-in-law of Donald, on Saturday on Trump’s Fox News program My View with Lara Trump to talk about her role in the Trump White House. One of the questions Lara asked Wiles was what she hopes her legacy will be, and after claiming that she doesn’t “think that way,” making it a hard question to answer, she eventually said that she wants “a world at peace, an America that’s strong, and a border that’s secure.”
Also included in that list of hopes was a quality education system. Wiles told Trump, “I want an education system—something we don’t talk about as much, but I’m passionate about—that will position our kids to meet the future, whatever that may be.”
Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order designed to shutter the Department of Education entirely, directing education secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
The Department cannot be phased out entirely without an act of Congress, but the Trump administration is working tirelessly to shrink its workforce and strip it of its responsibilities by “return[ing] education authority to the states.”
As a result, it’s unclear how, exactly, education will be part of Trump’s legacy, let alone Wiles’. By passing the buck onto the states, the issue of education is no longer a very large part of their responsibility. Even if states were to make what the Trump administration considers improvements to how they educate their students, Trump, Wiles, McMahon and co. could not reasonably take credit for the changes.
Activists and Democrats have condemned Trump’s actions, with the National Parents Union issuing a statement that read, “This isn’t fixing education. It’s making sure millions of children never get a fair shot. And we’re not about to let that happen without a fight.”
