The Ministry of Education has long been a thorn in the side of US President Donald Trump, now his government is crazy. As part of his “ultimate task”, the Ministry “today initiated a job cuts that affects almost 50 percent of the ministry workforce,” said Minister of Education Linda McMahon on Tuesday (local time).
The ministry had around 4100 employees when they took office. Almost 600 ministry employees have agreed to retire prematurely in the past few weeks, the ministry said. Another 1,300 employees would be transferred to administrative leave on March 21, but would continue to be paid by June.
It was also said that no area would be spared the cuts. “All departments of the ministry are affected by the cuts, and some departments have to be restructured significantly in order to be able to better serve students, parents, educators and taxpayers.” However, legally prescribed programs would continue to be continued unabated, including loans for students and the financing of students with special needs.
The measure now initiated seems to be the first step as part of the dissolution of the Federal Authority. In the election campaign, Trump announced that he would abolish the Ministry of Education in the event of his election. The Republicans' plans provide to decentralize the education and to transfer the powers of the ministry to the individual states.
Traditionally, the US government only has a limited influence on education. Only about 13 percent of the funds for primary and secondary schools come from federal funds, the rest is financed by the states and local communities. However, the federal funds are existentially important for schools with a low budget and for pupils with special needs. In addition, the government played an important role in enforcing important civil rights for students in the past.
Trump: Ministry of Education is “big fraud”
After the election, Trump had given a clear marching order to Education Minister Linda McMahon: “I want Linda to abolish herself.” The “Wall Street Journal” had reported last week that Trump wanted to sign a decree to dissolve the entire ministry. The White House had not explained anything until Tuesday evening. A draft, which the “Wall Street Journal” has, says Minister of Education McMahon to take all the necessary steps to enable the ministry to be closed, the newspaper said. The aim of doing this in the greatest possible extent is to quote the newspaper from the draft last week.
In the preliminary text, it was said that the experiment to control the American education system through federal programs and money as well as through bureaucrats who do not owe anyone accounting, had let children, teachers and families down. Trump himself had explained that the ministry was a “big fraud” and a day of “radicals and Marxists”.
According to the “New York Times”, the Ministry was created by the congress in 1979, and the parliament would probably have to agree to a resolution. In addition, there would certainly be a wave of complaints against a closure.
