What Closing the U.S. Department of Education Would Mean For Your Kid: Breaking Down The Linda McMahon Impeachment News
Last Tuesday, I sat in a sticky folding chair at my town’s elementary school PTA meeting, half-listening to a debate over new playground mulch, when a high school teacher in the back pulled up breaking news on her phone and passed it down the row. Democrats are moving to impeach Linda McMahon, Secretary of Education, over what they’re calling willful intent to shut down the entire U.S. Department of Education. By the end of the meeting, half a dozen parents were texting each other questions: What does that even mean for our kids? Is this just more DC drama, or is this going to change what happens at our kitchen table every night?
I drove home that night with my two boys, 10-year-old Sam who has dyslexia and 16-year-old Jax who’s already starting to sort out college applications, and called my sister who teaches 4th grade at a low-income public school 20 minutes away. She was grading spelling tests with the news playing in the background, and she didn’t sugarcoat it. McMahon has said publicly since before she was confirmed that she believes the Department of Education is unnecessary bureaucracy that should be eliminated. Since taking office, she’s pushed to cut the department’s budget by 90% over two years, dismantle core offices, and stop enforcing most federal education laws. The impeachment isn’t just partisan fighting, she said. It’s a response to McMahon openly refusing to do the job she was appointed to do.
Sam has an IEP, and his after-school reading specialist is paid for partially through federal special education funding. The rules that require schools to evaluate kids for learning disabilities like dyslexia, instead of just writing them off as slow learners, are enforced by the Department of Education. When we fought to get Sam evaluated in first grade, the district tried to push us off for another year, until we cited those federal rules. If the department closes, there’s no one to hold states or school districts accountable for following those laws. Most parents can’t afford to hire a private lawyer to fight a school district on their own, myself included. That’s not an abstract problem for me. That’s my kid.
My sister’s district gets 12% of its annual budget from the Department of Education, most of that for free and reduced-price school lunches and special education services. If that funding disappears, the town will have to make up the difference with higher property taxes, or cut 12% of the budget, which would mean laying off 15 teachers, getting rid of the art program, and cutting all after-school sports. That’s not DC politics. That’s what happens to kids who eat lunch at school every day, and teachers who already buy their own classroom supplies.
A lot of people I’ve talked to say they don’t follow this stuff because it’s too confusing, and they don’t know what they can do anyway. Most of us don’t have time to go to protests or spend hours researching policy between work, carpool, and bedtime routines. I get that. I’ve found three small things that take less than 10 minutes total that anyone can do right now, no big commitment required.
First, pull out your phone when you’re waiting for school pickup, go to house.gov, type in your zip code, and find your U.S. Representative’s office phone number. Save it in your contacts. Then leave a one-sentence message: “I’m a parent of a kid in [your school district] public schools, and I oppose any effort to shut down the U.S. Department of Education.” That’s it. You don’t have to give your last name if you don’t want to, you don’t have to debate anything. Congressional offices count every message they get, and that small act actually matters more than people think.
Second, join your local PTA’s email list if you haven’t already. You don’t have to go to every meeting. Most PTAs only send 1 or 2 emails a month, and they’ll tell you exactly how federal changes like this impact your local school, not just generic national news. My PTA sent out a note six months ago about a change in federal lunch funding that let me qualify Sam for reduced fees I didn’t know we were eligible for, which cut my grocery bill by $150 a month. That’s real, tangible help that comes from staying loosely connected.
Third, the next time you’re at your kid’s parent-teacher conference, ask the principal what closing the Department of Education would mean for your school. Most principals already know exactly how much federal funding they get, and what they’d have to cut if it goes away. If 10 or 20 parents ask the same question, principals will almost always reach out to their representatives themselves, and that carries a lot more weight than individual calls.
I talked to a mom at Jax’s soccer game last Saturday whose 7-year-old has autism. She hadn’t heard the news yet, and when I explained what was happening, she just stood there twisting her water bottle cap for a minute and said her son’s early intervention therapist is partially paid for through federal grants. If that money goes, they can’t afford the $800 a month out of pocket. That’s the part no one talks about on the cable news debates: this isn’t about red or blue. It’s about kids whose families can’t absorb another cut.
Right now, the impeachment vote is scheduled for next month, and no one knows if it will pass, or what happens after that. I still get most of my news between the carpool line and soccer practice, same as most parents. I saved my representative’s number, I left my message, I joined the PTA’s advocacy list. I don’t know how this will end. I know that if the Department of Education closes, it won’t be some abstract policy change. It’ll mean higher taxes for my house, less support for Sam’s reading, less aid for Jax’s college, and big changes for every public school family in my town. I don’t have any neat conclusions here. I just check the news most nights while I fold laundry after the kids go to bed, and I keep that phone number saved in my contacts. That’s all I can do right now.
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