Our state and federal education and workforce data infrastructure is at risk.
States have always led on education and parents have always led on decisions about their children’s schooling, including where to send them. That’s as it should be. As states continue their work to get young people through school and into postsecondary education and the workforce, they need the federal government to be a partner in that effort, not a hindrance. Arbitrarily removing large numbers of Department of Education staff abandons states at a time when they need additional capacity to support students, not less.
The mission of the Department of Education is and always has been to support states, communities, and families by bringing together information on what works so that schools can best educate children. Core to that mission is collecting and sharing appropriate federal data, which predates even the Department of Education. States have done a lot of work getting their own data houses in order but require federal data to better understand how their policies, outcomes, and pathways compare to those of other states—a critical role of the federal government. Diluting the department’s mission by removing 50 percent of staff will hinder state leaders’ ability to direct their education systems and parents’ ability to make informed decisions for their families.
While the administration hasn’t released its executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, the consequences of this “final mission” are already apparent. The anticipated scattering of the Department of Education’s functions across myriad other federal agencies who lack the staff capacity and expertise to serve states on education will require states, families, and even members of Congress to navigate the bureaucracy of multiple agencies whose missions may not align or focus on education. It also will dilute resources, research, and evidence—such as National Assessment of Educational Progress results and the information generated by state assessments—that currently support state education agencies, school districts, and parents’ decisionmaking. Additionally, it is unclear how federal-level datasets, including the statutorily mandated Civil Rights Data Collection will continue with these dramatic staff reductions.
Any changes to the Department of Education need to be discussed through an honest, open, transparent conversation with the public, states, and Congress. The Secretary of Education should not make sweeping changes to the Department of Education in the dark. The country’s students and their families deserve better.
