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Aug. 9, 2024
Editor, The News-Gazette: Republicans have vowed to eliminate the Department of Education. It’s one of the top recommendations of the Heritage Foundation for what they hope will be the second Trump term. Trump already promised he would: “We’re going to close it up – all those buildings all over the place and people that in many cases hate our children.”
Trump also claims he will protect “the God-given right of every parent to be the steward of their children’s education.” Unless you are one of what he calls “Radical Left and Marxist Maniacs Infecting Educational Institutions.” Then you will have no rights. “We are going to have real education in America,” he says, and that means “defending the American tradition and Western civilization.”
An educational agenda designed to “defend” certain ideas and ban others is indoctrination.
Trump will take the antifactual and anti-Black agenda Governor DeSantis is imposing on Florida schools and impose it on the nation. Governor Youngkin did his best to impose it on Virginia, declaring “divisive concepts” illegal in public schools. According to Youngkin, “divisive” includes the wellestablished fact that people are often unconsciously racist or sexist. Conservative legislatures have also banned: “theories of systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege.” Why? Because conservatives disagree with those ideas, and in every state where they have gerrymandered a supermajority, they ban them.
In their anti-First-Amendment hypocrisy, they impose indoctrination in the name of ending indoctrination. Those extremists are now poised to win the House and the Senate by razor-thin majorities. That’s all they need to impose their anti-education agenda, and anything else that suits their rightwing whims, if Donald Trump completes his January 6th ambitions and reclaims the White House. CHRIS GAVALER Lexington
