The top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee railed against MAGA efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, telling Raw Story on Thursday, "Now they can discriminate."
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to begin drastically unwinding the Department of Education. The order directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin the process of shrinking the department and transferring educational authority back to the states.
Completely eliminating the department, however, requires congressional approval, which the administration likely doesn't have.
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The order aimed to significantly reduce the agency's scope and only retain "essential functions" such as managing student loans, enforcing civil rights legislation, and overseeing Pell grants. It also fulfills Trump's campaign vow and aligns with long-standing conservative calls to eliminate the agency.
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) sounded the alarm at the action, warning that the U.S. has seen what education looks like without the Department of Education — it resulted in segregation.
"They know they're discriminating, and now they can discriminate," Scott told Raw Story. "If the Department of Education is eliminated, then the civil rights of students — the right of students to get an education — will be dependent on each and every state, and we know how that worked. If you leave it up to the states, you could still have racial segregation in schools, students with disabilities would not be getting much education at all.”
Scott called the latest MAGA endeavor akin to when the Voting Rights Act was "shot down."
"You started seeing these states in the South particularly kind of revert back to some of their old ways," he said. "When Section V — pre-clearance — was essentially eliminated, officials in at least two states pronounced that it was good, and now they can pass voting rights laws that would make no sense if they could have been pre-cleared."
He pointed to Title I and the Civil Rights Act as evidence of what happens when civil rights are left up to the states.
"It didn't work, right?" Scott said.
While he conceded he doesn't know what the political implications will be, he said the education implications are clear.
"Those for whom the Education Department was there, they will be at a serious disadvantage," warned Scott. "Those who were segregated into inferior schools, those with English as a second language, students with disabilities were not getting an education until there was a federal mandate. Low-income students, people in rural and low-income areas were not getting an equal educational opportunity. That's why the Department of Education was there."
Furthermore, equitable access to college may suffer.
"Then access to college and student loans, so students can get into college. That's why the Department of Education was there, so that people would have an equal opportunity with education, and we know what it looked like before then, we know how many students were getting into college without Pell Grants and student loans. We know what the opportunity looked like and, under segregation, what is left up to the states. We know students with disabilities were not getting an education until there's a federal mandate."
"Parents of students with disabilities, it's a fight," he added. "The only thing they have on their side is federal law and the Department of Education. Leave it up to the states, they're not going to get much."