Only a Fascist Fears an Educated Nation
That’s why they’re dismantling the Department of Education
Yes, millions of students—especially in poor, rural, or minority communities—are stuck in underfunded schools with outdated materials and crumbling buildings. Yes, teachers are overworked and underpaid. Yes, some public schools are failing their students.
But here’s what the data actually shows:
The United States is not collapsing in education. Since 2000, U.S. students have held relatively steady in international rankings—even as the rest of the developed world has fallen. Across two decades of global PISA testing (Data and Source sections), the U.S. saw a modest 1.87% decline in overall scores. By contrast, the OECD average dropped by 4.47%. In reading and science, U.S. scores are virtually unchanged from where they were in 2000.
We are still capable of excellence.
The problem isn’t national decline. The problem is internal sabotage.
Because behind that stable national average is a brutal truth:
Our biggest educational failures are overwhelmingly concentrated in red states—run by the very politicians trying to dismantle the Department of Education.
Who’s Actually Dragging Us Down
You’ve heard the talking points:
“Federal overreach.”
“Let states decide.”
“School choice.”
Sounds nice—until you look at the numbers.
The most recent rankings from World Population Review and the Nation’s Report Card are crystal clear:
The top-performing school systems in the country are in blue or purple states like Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
These states invest in teachers, fund public education, and treat learning as a public good—not a political weapon.
At the bottom of the rankings?
Mostly red states—Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arizona.
The same states cutting education budgets, banning books, and driving teachers out of the profession—while screaming the loudest about “parental rights.”
And the gap is staggering.
According to 2022 NAEP data, 77% of 8th graders in Massachusetts are at or above basic reading proficiency.
In West Virginia? Just 60%.
In math, the gap is even worse: 70% in Massachusetts versus just 48% in West Virginia.
That’s not just a difference in outcomes—it’s a difference in opportunities.
And it’s not an accident.
It’s not a coincidence.
It’s policy.
Even more damning?
Many of the states failing their students the hardest are also the most dependent on the federal government.
In places like Mississippi, Arkansas, and Kentucky, over 20% of public education funding comes directly from the Department of Education, according to Parents.com.
So, when Republicans demand to shut it down, they’re not just playing politics.
They’re sawing off the branch their own students are sitting on.
Let’s be clear:
This isn’t about “empowering states.”
It’s about empowering the saboteurs.
It’s about giving failed leaders more room to fail—on purpose.
Because when your movement thrives on ignorance, fear, and resentment, an educated population is a threat.
They don’t want better schools.
They want a more obedient electorate.
And the easiest way to get that is to keep people misinformed, underfunded, and isolated.
Because if you want to keep power without earning it, ignorance is your greatest ally.
And here’s where it gets worse:
Even in the highest-performing states, there are massive disparities by zip code.
Because school funding is still deeply tied to property taxes.
That means rich districts get new buildings, advanced classes, and fully staffed classrooms—
while poor and rural districts are left with peeling paint, ancient textbooks, and burned-out teachers.
So let’s make this plain:
On average, the quality of education in the U.S. has remained steady.
What’s changed is who gets that quality.
We’ve gone from a country where most kids got a decent education—
to one where some get world-class schooling, and others get barely enough to function.
That’s not failure. That’s how they decide who gets to succeed—and who doesn’t.
So, if your child is in a struggling school—especially in a red state—you’re not imagining it.
You’re not wrong.
You’re being failed.
Not by the Department of Education.
But by a Republican Party that doesn’t want every child to have a fair shot—
just their donors’ children.
They want their kids to thrive…
while yours struggles to read.
The Department of Education doesn’t set your curriculum.
It doesn’t control your school board.
It steps in when your state won’t.
It sends Title I funding to low-income districts.
It enforces civil rights laws.
It tracks inequity—and makes it harder to hide.
That’s why they want it gone.
Because if your endgame is to divide, misinform, and control?
You start by breaking education.
And the Department of Education is the last thing standing in your way.
Modern Sabotage, Old Roots
And the worst part? They’ve dressed it up in virtue.
“Faith-based education.”
“Family values.”
“Freedom from woke indoctrination.”
But scratch the surface, and it’s the same old trick: manufacture a moral panic, then funnel public dollars into private, often religious schools—built to serve the well-connected while leaving everyone else behind.
The GOP war on public education didn’t start with Trump. It didn’t start with Betsy DeVos. And it didn’t start with Reagan.
It started with Brown v. Board of Education—the 1954 Supreme Court ruling that said segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
And the response from Southern politicians was swift and shameless. They called it massive resistance. Not just opposition—resistance. Entire school systems were shut down. Public funds were rerouted to newly created private schools for white families only. These schools were built specifically to evade integration. And they didn’t just pop up—they exploded across the South in the 1960s and ’70s, under banners like “freedom,” “parental rights,” and “Christian values.”
We call them segregation academies. And here’s the thing:
They still exist. Hundreds of them.
A ProPublica investigation uncovered roughly 300 of these schools still operating today. Some are polished private prep institutions. Others, like Wilcox Academy in Alabama, are still small, still white, and still sitting just down the road from vastly underfunded, majority-Black public schools.
In Camden, Alabama, it’s all there—two schools, one mile apart. The private academy, founded in 1970 just as desegregation orders hit, offers a narrow curriculum and an overwhelmingly white student body. The public school, Wilcox Central High, serves the entire county—mostly Black students—with better facilities, more programs, and fewer resources. And now, thanks to state voucher programs, public money is flowing into that private school system once again.
The reporting is chilling in its familiarity. As ProPublica notes, the language hasn’t changed much since the 1960s. “School choice.” “Freedom.” “Parental rights.” But behind the rebranding is the same strategy: keep white students separate, and subsidize that separation with taxpayer money.
Even the funding model is familiar. In the 1960s, Alabama and other Southern states passed laws to give tuition grants to white families fleeing integrated schools. Today, those same states are passing sweeping voucher bills—like Alabama’s CHOOSE Act—that funnel millions of public dollars into private schools that remain disproportionately white and explicitly religious. One historian in the piece calls it what it is: “The Segregation Academy Rescue Act.”
This isn’t about better schools. It never was.
This is about power. About creating parallel systems—one for the wealthy and the well-connected, and one for everyone else.
And without the Department of Education to track inequity, enforce civil rights, and make funding conditional on basic fairness? There’s nothing to stop them.
This isn’t just policy. This is history repeating itself—on purpose.
What the Department of Education Actually Does—And More Importantly, Doesn’t
If you listen to Republican politicians—or right-wing media for more than five minutes—you’d think the Department of Education is some kind of Orwellian megastructure forcing radical ideologies into your kid’s classroom.
It’s not. And it never has been.
In fact, the Department of Education doesn’t write your school’s curriculum. It doesn’t pick your textbooks. It doesn’t tell teachers what to say, and it sure as hell doesn’t ban—or assign—books.
That’s all handled at the state and local level. Always has been. That’s not speculation—it’s law. The Department is explicitly prohibited from dictating or controlling curriculum under the General Education Provisions Act of 1974.
So what does the Department actually do?
It fills the gaps—especially in the places that need help the most.
Think of it as the nation's educational safety net and accountability engine. It makes sure no child is completely abandoned just because they live in a poor district, have a disability, or need federal protection from discrimination. It doesn’t replace local systems—it steps in when those systems fail.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
It sends billions in Title I funding to low-income schools every year—supporting more than 26 million students, including in rural areas that most people assume are funded “locally.” In fact, about 40% of Title I schools are rural, and half of all public schools rely on Title I dollars source: Parents.com.
It enforces civil rights in education—through Title VI, Title IX, and Section 504. This includes investigating racial discrimination, sexual harassment, gender-based exclusion, and disability violations.
It oversees and funds services for students with disabilities, including early intervention, classroom accommodations, and teacher training under IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). Without this oversight, millions of students would simply be left behind—or denied access altogether.
It provides financial aid that makes college even remotely possible for low- and middle-income students. We're talking Pell Grants, federal loans, work-study programs, and support for HBCUs, Tribal Colleges, and Hispanic-Serving Institutions.
The Department tracks data no one else does—graduation rates, achievement gaps, school discipline disparities—because we can’t fix what we can’t measure. This data gets disaggregated by race, income, and disability status so inequities aren’t just visible—they’re undeniable.
In short? The Department of Education doesn’t indoctrinate kids. It protects them. It funds the schools that would otherwise be ignored. And it keeps this country’s worst instincts—from racial segregation to ableism to religious overreach—from becoming policy.
That’s why the right wants it gone.
Because the moment you get rid of it? There’s nothing left to stop the flood.
If You Believe in This Fight, Help Keep It Alive
Before we get to the tracker, I need a quick moment of your time:
This work isn’t backed by corporations. There are no ads, no paywalls, no billionaires funding it.
It’s just one person, fighting like hell to expose the truth and give you the weapons to push back.
If you value this work—if you want this movement to keep growing, keep calling out fascism without fear, and keep fighting for the future we deserve—then I need your support.
Join the fight. Become a supporter. Every contribution keeps this mission alive.
Because silence is surrender. We do not surrender. We are #TheRelentless.
So Why Kill It? Because Ignorance Is Useful.
Let’s be honest: this was never about local control.
It was never about saving money.
And it was definitely never about helping kids.
The people trying to dismantle the Department of Education don’t hate it because it’s ineffective. They hate it because it works.
They hate it because it exposes inequality.
Because it protects students they’d rather ignore.
Because it makes them answer for things they’d rather keep in the dark.
And most of all?
Because it gets in the way of their long-term plan: a nation divided, misinformed, under-educated, and easy to control.
The Department of Education is one of the few institutions in this country with a mandate to enforce equity. Not just suggest it. Not just recommend it. Enforce it. And that makes it dangerous—to people who benefit from inequality.
If you want to build a generation of citizens who question authority, think critically, and understand their rights? You need strong public schools.
If you want a generation that obeys, submits, and votes against its own interests? You strip those schools down and replace education with indoctrination.
This isn’t hypothetical. We’re already watching it happen.
Red states are flooding public schools with religious propaganda, rewriting history textbooks, banning science, and targeting teachers who dare to speak truthfully about race, gender, or the Constitution. And where does the federal government step in to say, “No, you can’t do that”?
The Department of Education.
That’s why it’s in the crosshairs.
Because if you’re trying to reshape the country into something darker, dumber, and more obedient?
An agency built to shine light into the system is the first thing you burn.
This was never a policy disagreement. This is a strategy.
And the strategy is working—unless we stop it.
A Department Worth Defending
Here’s the truth:
You don’t go after the Department of Education unless you want the country to be weaker.
You don’t defund schools, strip protections from disabled students, block low-income aid, and gut civil rights enforcement unless that’s the point.
You don’t kill the agency responsible for protecting fairness, access, and opportunity unless you want a future with less fairness, less access, and no opportunity—for the people who need it most.
The right isn’t trying to improve the system. They’re trying to own it—or destroy it.
And they’ve decided that the Department of Education is in the way.
So let’s be absolutely clear about what’s at stake:
You kill the Department of Education, and you open the floodgates to full-on resegregation.
You kill the Department of Education, and millions of kids lose the only protection they have against discrimination.
You kill the Department of Education, and poor communities are left to sink while wealthy ones hoard every advantage.
You kill the Department of Education, and the long arc of progress gets snapped in half.
We don’t need less federal oversight in education—we need more. We need the Department to be stronger, not weaker. We need it to have the teeth to shut down segregation academies, to withhold funding from states that push pseudoscience, and to ensure that every child—every single one—gets a real education rooted in facts, not fear.
And if that threatens the people trying to build a Christian nationalist shadow-state out of public schools?
Good.
Because the Department of Education isn’t the problem.
It’s one of the last institutions still fighting for a country where opportunity actually means something.
Anyone who wants it gone doesn’t care about your kid, your community, or this country’s future.
They care about control. About obedience. About ignorance.
So no—we’re not going to let them burn it down.
We’re going to defend it. Loudly. Relentlessly. And unapologetically.
Because defending the Department of Education means defending every kid’s right to a future built on fairness, truth, and opportunity—and that’s worth fighting for.
Join the Fight, Amplify the Truth
Because silence is surrender. We never surrender. We are #TheRelentless.
📊 Data Summary
📊 Table 1: U.S. PISA Performance (2000–2022)
Key Data:
Reading: no change
Math: -28 points (-5.68%)
Science: no change
Total Score Change: -28 points (-1.87%)
🌐 Table 2: OECD Comparison (2000 vs 2022)
Key Data:
Reading: -4.8%
Math: -5.6%
Science: -3.0%
Total Score Change: -67 points (-4.47%)
📊 Table 3: U.S. NAEP Grade 8 Reading Performance (2024)
2022 Nation’s Report Card - Reading (see sources)
🔎 Sources
World Population Review – Public School Rankings by State (2025)
A ranking of states based on school quality, student safety, and success metrics. The data tells a clear story: blue states dominate the top of the list, while red states consistently fall behind.
U.S. Department of Education – Federal Role in Education
This official explainer outlines the Department’s mission to promote educational access and excellence—not dictate curriculum. Federal dollars make up only ~8% of K–12 funding but play a critical role in filling gaps where states fall short.
U.S. Department of Education – PISA Results (2000–2022)
Comparative international performance data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). While the U.S. saw a modest ~1.87% drop in average scores from 2000 to 2022, the OECD average fell by over 4.4%, indicating the U.S. has fared better than most peer nations.
Sub-sources:
Parents.com – 7 Ways the Department of Education Supports Your Kids' School
An accessible breakdown clarifying that the ED doesn’t control curriculum but instead ensures funding for low-income schools, students with disabilities, and civil rights protections.
ProPublica – Segregation Academies Still Operate Across the South. One Town Grapples With Its Divided Schools
A deep investigation into how dozens of private “segregation academies”—originally built to resist desegregation—are still active across the South, often disproportionately white and now positioned to receive public funds via voucher programs.
MasterClass – Massive Resistance: A Brief History
A concise overview of the post–Brown v. Board backlash in the South. Southern politicians closed public schools, cut funding, and created “segregation academies” to evade desegregation mandates—tactics echoed in modern voucher policies.
Nation’s Report Card – Reading Achievement by State (2024 – Grade 8)
State-by-state performance data showing that high-achieving states tend to be blue or purple, while the lowest-performing states—like Mississippi, Alabama, and Oklahoma—are also those most hostile to federal oversight.
Sub-sources:
That’s exactly right. They don’t want educated people because educated people rarely believe in creationism and all the rest of their troglodytic nonsense. And of course, as always in America, the racism is the main root. I don’t know why that still surprises me after all this time, but it’s still shocking. So disappointing that that kind of mindless hatred still motivates so many.
As a Canadian observing the mess you are in, would it not make sense to let those extremely racist southern states become their own entity? Just provide all people of colour money to move and funding support for reemployment. Housing would be a major barrier.