History Warns Us: The Dismantling of Public Education is About Control
Don't Sit This One Out: This is Not Just About Schools—It’s About Our Future
She was only 1 1/2 years old when she joined our family, but she had already been in three other homes. Her birth parents drank and did drugs during the pregnancy, and she was also physically abused having undergone at least three CT scans for bruises before being removed from their home at 2 1/2 months old. Once she was removed, she spent a week in ICU to detox and get the medical care she needed. Her first foster home was neglectful. She didn’t have the motor skills to sit up or develop normally. It was too much for them, so she was transferred to her second foster home. This one was a miracle. Foster Mom did everything she could do to help this baby. Since we are distant relation to her, and had previously been foster care parents and adoptive parents, we wanted to keep her in the family, so she came to us in the middle of the night, having flown from California to Florida.
It was evident that she had physical and mental trauma. She cried for 12 hours a day during the first almost year she was with us. This heart wrenching, haunting cry of someone who is in pain - that deep pain of trauma - and not able to speak or communicate. She barely talked. She was diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FAS). Due to no fault of her own, she has permanent brain damage and severe ADHD. Oh, but she is smart, and beautiful, and kind - until she isn’t. You see for her, the FAS presents as emotional dysregulation, outbursts of anger and violence, sensory issues, and difficulty learning. You would never know it if you met her. Her smiling face and sweetness will capture your heart. She is fiercely independent, and hates change - especially to her routine. She needs a higher level of attention and comfort.
On her first day of school, she punched her Kindergarten teacher in the stomach. This was bad enough, but the teacher was pregnant. She had to change classrooms. Her behavior would escalate in class to where they were doing “class room clears” where the other students would have to leave the classroom so she could calm down while she was pulling posters from the wall and throwing desks and chairs. It was too much for the class. Desperate for a solution, we worked with the school and were able to transfer her to another school that had an Affective Needs Program designed specifically for kiddos just like her.
In this program she learned how to regulate herself in classroom settings (although this was still a work in progress), and if she did get dysregulated, she had a safe place to go with teachers and aids that were there to help her and keep her safe. She slowly started to participate in classroom work and started to learn. She stayed in this program for two more years until we moved to another town and county. Gratefully, they too had an Affective Needs (AN) Program.
The first school was in a very affluent town and county - the richest in the state of Colorado. They had resources and money. The new school with the AN Program is 7 miles from our house in a poor neighborhood with 85% of the students living in poverty and who speak English as their second language - children of immigrant parents looking for a better life. We were concerned that the school would not provide the same level of care for our girl. Thankfully, we were wrong.
The elementary school is a Title 1 school which directs money to schools with high concentrations of students living in poverty and provides supports such as reading specialists and smaller class sizes. She has the equivalent resources and programs. The school is also able to provide free breakfast and lunch to its students, which is much needed for this community. My daughter is beginning to thrive. She has made friends. She is learning. Even though she is still academically behind her class, she is starting to improve. Her Individual Education Plan (IEP) provides for her to receive reading help, occupational therapy, emotional and behavioral support, and more. It literally is changing her life.
Now, the system that provides this for my daughter is being dismantled. While the Trump administration claims programs like this will not be interrupted, we are already seeing concerns rise within the school’s administration. They can no longer promise these programs will still be available.
On March 20, Donald Trump signed yet another Executive Order, this time setting the wheels in motion to dismantle the Department of Education. According to the National Education Association (NEA), Title I schools—which serve low-income students—could be devastated if federal funding is turned into block grants with no oversight, as proposed in Project 2025. The Center for American Progress estimates that this could result in the loss of 180,000 teaching positions, impacting 2.8 million students.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which provides $15 billion in support for students with disabilities, is also at risk. If its administration is shifted to another agency, it could mean fewer protections and less access to necessary services for 7.5 million students. In other words, those who need the most help could be left with nothing. Like MY daughter.
But this isn’t just about funding. It’s about control. History has shown us what happens when governments manipulate education to serve an ideological agenda.
In Imperial and Soviet Russia, education was used as a tool of social control, limiting mobility and later enforcing state doctrine. A Boston University study on educational ideology notes that both regimes treated schooling as a way to shape loyalty and suppress dissent. Similarly, in Nazi Germany, the education system was gutted and rebuilt to indoctrinate children with propaganda, fostering unwavering allegiance to Hitler and his ideology.
Sound familiar?
Project 2025 outlines an education system designed not to serve students, but to manufacture Trump loyalists. His Executive Order from January 29 makes that clear:
"Parents trust America’s schools to provide their children with a rigorous education and to instill a patriotic admiration for our incredible Nation and the values for which we stand... However, parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight."
In other words, the goal isn’t to return control to states. They already control most aspects of education. The real intent is to enforce a singular, government-approved ideology while stripping away protections for marginalized students. By eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, Title IX protections, and accommodations for transgender and BIPOC students, this is about enforcing a narrow, exclusionary vision of education.
We cannot allow this to happen.
Yesterday, teachers in Colorado stood up. Aurora schools closed for the day so educators and students could protest at the state capitol. To those who raised their voices: Thank you. Your courage matters.
Now it’s time for all of us to act. Call your senators and representatives. Write letters. Show up at town halls. Pay attention to what’s being taught in schools. Know your rights—and use them. Most importantly, VOTE. Local elections matter just as much as national ones. School boards, city councils, and county commissioners have a direct impact on education policies.
Even if you don’t have children, this fight affects you. The next generation is being shaped right now. Let’s make sure they inherit a system that values knowledge, not propaganda.