Parents weigh in on Trump's vow to dismantle Department of Education as children's test scores fall

Parents and teachers have weighed in on Trump's vow to abolish the Department of Education (ED) as a report found a decline in students' math and science scores.

President-elect Donald Trump has made axing the ED a key part of his second-term agenda, criticizing the department as unnecessary, ineffective and a weapon of the 'woke' culture war. 

In a campaign video, Trump said he wants states - not the federal government - to control the US education system. 

Jody Baldwin Stone, a mother of three daughters from Rhode Island, told DailyMail.com that the US education system is failing its students - especially those with learning disabilities as her two daughter were diagnosed with dyslexia.

She struggled for years to get her daughters into special education programs, even though federal benchmark assessments indicated they were in need of 'urgent intervention.' 

'We have an education system that is focused on an adult jobs program,' said Stone.

'Everything is based on the adults. I think we will see a return to a focus on what is best for students.'

The new report found that US students' math and science scores took a hit between 2019 and 2023, focusing on tests that are scored on a scale of zero to 1,000.

From 2019 to 2023, average fourth grade math and science scores fell 18 and seven points, respectively, and average eighth grade scores fell 27 and 19 points. 

'I would call these declines sharp, steep,' Peggy Carr, commissioner of a statistical agency at the US Department of Education, told the Wall Street Journal.  

State and local governments already provide 90 percent of education funding and set most of the rules, curriculum guidelines and school policies. 

But the ED does play a critical role in administering federal grant programs, enforcing civil rights laws that bar discrimination in federally funded schools, and collecting data on enrollment, crime in school, staffing and more.

Stone said she was able to put her two daughters in schools that cater to their disabilities and even though they were not in the public school system during the testing years, '[the] writing was on the wall for years before that.' 

But it's not just students with learning differences who are struggling to keep up in school. Recent data showed that test scores are falling across the board. 

The National Center for Education Statistics published the report Wednesday, which collected data through the Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS).

TIMSS is an exam administered every four years to fourth and eighth-graders from the US and other countries. 

The scores were found to be the largest decline since the US began participating in the test in 1995.

Students’ science scores in 2023 are not measurably different from those of 2019, though 4th graders’ scores are lower now than they were during the first TIMSS administration. 

The falling scores were largely a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down schools nationwide, the report stated. 

In the US, schools were at least partially closed for longer than in many other countries, including all of Europe, according to a Unesco analysis. 

As a result, several countries outperformed US students on the math and science assessment, including Finland in math, England in science and Poland in both subjects among forth graders. 

Other high scoring countries included Singapore and Japan. 

While COVID-19 exacerbated these declines, 'Something that we should be concerned about is that this isn't just the impact of the pandemic,' Carr added.

Other factors at play include a mass exodus of teachers from the profession and spikes in student misbehavior and absenteeism. 

But Baldwin Stone believes the bureaucracy of the Education Department is playing a major role as she had struggled to get her dyslexic daughters the services they need to thrive in school.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the ED program that makes it possible for states and local educational agencies to receive federal funds to assist in the education of students with disabilities. 

IDEA recognizes 13 disability categories as eligible for special education or IEPs - Individualized Education Programs. Dyslexia falls under an umbrella category called 'Specific Learning Disabilities.' 

To get enrolled in an IEP, students must go through a lengthy process that begins with a referral from a parent or teacher, followed by evaluation and a meeting with the IEP team. 

How long this takes varies by state, but Baldwin Stone said that students can get stalled in the evaluation process for months to years. 

'It is an abysmal failure,' she said. 'The bureaucracy is so big, and so many kids are failing. 

'They keep these kids out of special ed and they just think they're stupid when the reality is they're some of the brightest kids.' 

Thus, she is in favor of abolishing the ED.  

'It's just the whole mechanism of the way the Department of Education works - from the federal level and the state level to the Local Education Authority level, the LEA, which is another term for district - is broken,' Baldwin Stone said. 

'The whole thing is broken.'   

But a special education teacher from New Jersey - who asked not to be named - told DailyMail.com that dismantling the ED would only cause more harm to students, especially those with learning differences.

'If the [ED] disappeared tomorrow, there would be nobody guaranteeing that students are receiving services like speech therapy, counseling, occupational therapy, or physical therapy in schools,' she stated over email.

Without the ED safeguarding these services, parents would face an 'uphill battle' in fighting to maintain support for their special needs children, she added. 

Plus, dismantling federal regulations for special education would mean that these programs vary widely from state to state. 

'The uncertainty and variability would upend special education as it is in this country,' the special educator said. 

But abolishing the ED would have consequences for students in mainstreamed classes as well, she clarified.

'Students who receive additional services in school could be forced into the general education system with little support, pulling focus from other students and creating an environment that is not conducive to learning for anyone.'

Additionally, 'Without federal funding to level the playing field, lower income students will be disproportionately affected,' she said.

'Schools run on income from property taxes, the federal government gives funds to schools that are unable to meet the demands of their students.'

 As an educator working on the front lines of the nation's academic decline, she opposes Trump's mission to axe the ED. 

'The [ED] is not without faults, but getting rid of it completely would cripple an already overburdened system,' she said.

Trump will need congressional support in order to scrap the department - an uphill battle that will be made more challenging by the probable need for a supermajority - 60 out of 100 senators. 

The idea has garnered significant GOP support, and Republicans have a majority in the Senate. But they do not have 60 members in the upper chamber.

That means Trump would need at least a few Democrats to vote in favor of abolishing the agency - which is highly unlikely. 

Last year, a vote to dissolve the ED failed to pass as 60 Republicans and all Democrats voted it down. 

Thus, Trump may not deliver on his promise to get rid of the department during his second term.