Civil Rights Muscle Snapped in Schools

July 5, 2026

Group of children walking together with backpacks in an urban area

As Washington moves to dismantle the Department of Education in the name of “patriotic education,” millions of families are left wondering who will really gain and who will be left behind.

Story Snapshot

The Trump administration has issued an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education and shift power back to states and local communities.
Key federal roles like Pell Grants and student loans would stay, while many other programs and staff are cut or consolidated.
Supporters say the goal is to stop “indoctrination,” end funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and promote love of country.
Critics warn that gutting the Department will weaken civil rights enforcement and hurt low‑income students, students with disabilities, and English learners.

Trump’s push to shrink federal power over schools

President Trump’s second administration has made cutting federal control over education a central promise. In March 2025, he signed an executive order directing that the Department of Education be dismantled and authority over schooling returned to states and local communities. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said the goal is to “dismantle” the agency in practice, even though fully closing it still requires Congress to pass a law. This mirrors long‑standing conservative complaints that Washington has too much say in local classrooms.

The administration argues that federal involvement has failed families after trillions of dollars in spending. Leavitt claims the Department has spent about three trillion dollars over several decades on a system that is “failing” children and their parents. She says more parents are turning to homeschooling, private schools, and Christian schools because they believe these options better teach love of country and avoid political agendas. However, the administration has not released comparative data or studies to prove that these alternatives produce better academic or civic outcomes.

Patriotic education and the fight over “indoctrination”

The White House frames its education agenda as a fight to stop “radical indoctrination” and restore patriotic teaching. A January 2025 executive order on K‑12 schooling says federal policy should promote “patriotic admiration for our incredible Nation and the values for which we stand.” It directs agencies to cut off federal funds that support what it calls “gender ideology” or “discriminatory equity ideology” in curriculum, teacher training, or school programs. This language targets many diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts that conservatives blame for dividing the country.

Earlier efforts by conservatives to shape civic instruction include the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission, set up to promote teaching about the nation’s founding principles and to advise agencies on “patriotic education.” Today’s push builds on that idea but goes further by tying funding directly to cultural issues like race, gender, and how America’s past is taught. Supporters see this as ending the “weaponization of government” against traditional values and protecting parental rights. Liberals and many civil rights groups see it as government picking a single, sanitized story of America and punishing schools that refuse to follow it.

What stays, what goes, and who could be hurt

Even as the administration talks about “abolishing” the Department of Education, it says some core functions will remain. Leavitt has stressed that federal Pell Grants and student loan programs will continue to be managed by the Department so that individual aid to Americans does not stop. But the broader budget picture points to deep cuts. Analyses of the administration’s fiscal year 2026 request describe a twelve‑billion‑dollar reduction in the Department’s budget, about a fifteen percent cut, and consolidation of many programs into fewer, smaller funding streams.

Those changes would hit targeted supports the hardest. Researchers note that the budget plan would fold eighteen federal programs under the Every Student Succeeds Act into a single program with about seventy percent less money and eliminate all federal funding for language instruction for English learners and migrant education. The administration has also laid off nearly half of the Department’s staff, including in civil rights enforcement offices. Critics warn that these moves will especially harm students with disabilities, low‑income families, English learners, and Black and Brown students who depend most on federal protections and extra help.

Civil rights enforcement and the deep distrust of elites

For many Americans on both the right and the left, the loudest alarm is not about test scores; it is about power and fairness. The Department of Education has long enforced civil rights laws in schools, including cases involving race discrimination, disability rights, and language access. The administration says “critical functions” like civil rights enforcement will remain even as other parts of the Department shrink. But independent groups, including civil rights lawyers and education advocates, report that enforcement capacity has already been gutted by staff cuts and funding delays.

Fox News’ Jesse Watters: Some of these kids… [have] never had real jobs, and they’re complaining things are expensive. Yes, things are expensive when you don't have a real job. Do you think that's getting traction, complaining?

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt:… pic.twitter.com/8h4m2MwTUR

— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) July 3, 2026

This fuels a deeper fear shared across party lines: that those at the top are reshaping the rules to suit their own allies. Reports describe the administration withholding or canceling grants it dislikes, including mental health funding and programs it labels “woke,” while promoting private and charter school growth that may benefit well‑connected operators. Supporters see a long‑overdue correction of a bloated, ideological bureaucracy. Opponents see a federal government, led by political and economic elites, using patriotic language to cover a transfer of power and resources away from the most vulnerable students and toward those who are already doing well.