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A person walks in front of the Department of Education building in Washington, DC, on Feb. 4, 2025.
GZERO Explains: How did the US Department of Education become so controversial?
When was it established and why? US President Jimmy Carter created the department in 1979 as a Cabinet-level agency. It consolidated educational functions that were previously the responsibility of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services).
The department had a broad mandate, overseeing elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education, vocational training, special education, and civil rights compliance. Carter wanted to centralize programs and ensure equal access to education, which he considered “a fundamental right.”
Why was this significant? Historically, education in the United States has been primarily a state and local responsibility. The US Constitution does not explicitly mention education, and the 10th Amendment reserves powers not delegated to the federal government to the states.
At the same time, however, the 14th Amendment mandates equal protection under the law. In 1954, the case of Brown v. Board of Education gave the 14th Amendment precedence, upholding federal intervention in cases of legal discrimination, such as bussing to combat school segregation.
Eleven years later, as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It does not mandate direct federal oversight of schools but offers states funding based on meeting federal requirements, including safeguarding civil rights. These funds were later administered by the Department of Education.
How have Republicans viewed federal involvement in education? In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan wanted to abolish the department, citing concerns about federal overreach. George Bush Sr. took a more activist approach, styling himself as the“Education President,” and leveraging the department’s powers to improve education quality.
What is Trump’s position? President Donald Trump has criticized the department for imposing a race and gender agenda on schools that encourages children to “hate” their country. He has said the federal government should not have control over schools and that it’s staffed with “people that hate our children.”
On Feb. 14, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the Department of Education Craig Trainor issueda directive that all schools receiving federal funding rescind their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies within two weeks or “face a loss of funding.” Trump has also nominated Linda McMahon, cofounder of World Wrestling Entertainment and former head of the Small Business Administration, as Secretary of Education. At her confirmation hearing last week, McMahonstated that her first assignment as Secretary would be to “put herself out of a job” by dismantling the department, shifting control of education to the states and curbing federal oversight.
McMahon also proposed reallocating programs from Education to other federal agencies, such as moving the enforcement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to the Department of Health and Human Services and transferring the Office for Civil Rights to the Justice Department.
How can these changes be made? All these changes would require congressional approval. At her confirmation hearing, McMahonsaid “President Trump understands that we will be working with Congress …We’d like to do this right. We’d like to make sure that we are presenting a plan that I think our senators could get on board with, and our Congress to get on board with.”Graphic Truth: Apprenticeships are on the rise
Whether it’s the price of college, the promise of the gig economy, or simply the desire to get paid while training, apprenticeships are having a moment. In the US, this surge has coincided with an 8% drop in undergraduate college enrollment; in Canada, it comes amid high youth unemployment.
In short, young people want options for brighter futures. As a result, apprenticeships are increasingly becoming an alternative to expensive four-year college degrees, or as a way to forge new careers mid-life. Apprentices get all the benefits of other employees, including wages, while getting valuable on-the-job training.
After dipping during the pandemic, the number of apprenticeship registrations jumped 12% in 2022 to an all-time high in Canada. In the US, they rose 22% between 2020 and 2021 and saw an 82.1% jump between 2008 and 2021.
But this isn’t just a COVID-fueled trend. SAIT, one of Canada's largest post-secondary institutions for apprenticeships, has seen a 20% increase in enrollment over the last two years. So apprenticeships are likely to increase even more in the coming years.
ChatGPT on campus: How are universities handling generative AI?
In this episode of GZERO AI, Taylor Owen, professor at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University and director of its Centre for Media, Technology & Democracy, discusses how the emergence of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools have thrown a new dynamic into his teaching practice, and shares his insights into how colleges have attempted to handle the new phenomenon.
What does education look like in a world with generative AI?
The bottom line here is that we, students, universities, faculty, are simply in unchartered waters. I start teaching my digital policy class for the first time since the emergence of generative AI. I'm really unsure about how I should be handling this, but here are a few observations.
First, universities are all over the place on what to do. Policies range from outright bans, to updated citation requirements, to broad and largely unhelpful directives, to simply no policies at all. It's fair to say that a consensus has yet to emerge.
The second challenge is that AI detection software, like the plagiarism software we've used before it, are massively problematic. While there are some tools out there, they all suffer from several, in my view, disqualifying flaws. These tools have a tendency to generate false-positives, and this really matters when we're talking about academic integrity and ultimately plagiarism. What's more, research shows us that the use of these tools leads to an arms race between faculty trying to catch students and students trying to deceive. The other problem though, ironically, is that these tools may be infringing on students' copyright. When student essays are uploaded into these detection software, their writing is then stored and used for future detection. We've seen this same story with earlier generation plagiarism tools, and I personally want nothing to do with it.
Third, I think banning is not only impossible, but pedagogically irresponsible. The reality is that students, like all of us, have access to these tools and are going to use them. So, we need to move away from this idea that students are the problem and start focusing on how educators can improve their teaching instead.
However, I do worry that a key cognitive skillset that we develop at universities of reading and processing information and new ideas and developing ones on top of them is being lost. We need to ensure that our teaching preserves this.
Ultimately, this is going to be about developing new norms in old institutions, and we know that that is hard. We need new norms around trust in academic work, new methods of evaluating our own work and that of our students, teaching new skill sets and abandoning some old ones, and we need new norms for referencing and for acknowledging work. And yes, this means new norms around plagiarism. Plagiarism has been in the news a lot lately, but the status quo in an age of generative AI is simply untenable.
Perhaps I'm a Luddite on this, but I cannot let go of the idea entrenched in me that regardless of how a tool was used for research and developing ideas, that final scholarly products should ultimately be written by people. So, this term, I'm going to try a bunch of things and I'm going to see what works. I'll let you know what I learned. I'm Taylor Owen and thanks for watching.
- Artificial intelligence and the importance of civics ›
- Education’s digital revolution: why UN Secretary-General António Guterres says it's needed ›
- How will education change in the era of A.I.? ›
- AI's impact on jobs could lead to global unrest, warns AI expert Marietje Schaake ›
- AI agents are here, but is society ready for them? ›
- AI and the future of work: Experts Azeem Azhar and Adam Grant weigh in - GZERO Media ›
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 7, known as the “stop woke act,” in Florida, on April 22, 2022.
Ron DeSantis and the latest battle over Black history
As Black History Month begins today in the US, the country’s latest culture war battle is about … Black history.
On Wednesday, the College Board, a national nonprofit that sets educational standards for colleges, is set to release the framework for a new Advanced Placement course in African American history.
The course has been in the culture war crosshairs since Ron DeSantis, the popular conservative governor of Florida, last week nixed a pilot version of the curriculum from his state’s public high schools, saying it violates his 2022 “Stop WOKE ACT,” which aims to limit the teaching of progressive ideas such as “Critical Race Theory.”
If you’re unfamiliar with the US education system,AP programs are college-level courses for high school students.
If you’re unsure what Critical Race Theory is, it’s an academic approach that argues that racial hierarchies and discriminatory norms have shaped our social, legal, and economic systems, and that racism remains woven into those systems even in the absence of explicitly racist laws.
At issue in Florida are several sections of the AP course that draw on critical theory approaches to address criminal justice, the experiences of non-heterosexual Black people, and reparations for slavery.
DeSantis’ critics say he is censoring certain subjects for political reasons and that he is unfairly singling out African American studies for special scrutiny. A court has already partially blocked application of the Stop WOKE Act over free speech concerns, and Florida students backed by a prominent civil rights attorney have already threatened to sue DeSantis over the AP decision. On Tuesday, DeSantis doubled down, announcing that he now wants to prohibit state universities from spending money on “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives, which aim to broaden the racial and ethnic backgrounds of the student body and staff.
DeSantis, one of America’s foremost conservative culture warriors, says he’s preventing he “indoctrination” of students with ideas that he and his supporters say foment social conflict rather than national unity. Florida’s existing African American history requirements, he points out, already include a focus on the legacies of slavery and racism.
The intrigue: What will the final version of the course look like? The College Board, which took several years to develop the course, has reportedly said it won’t make changes based specifically on Florida’s reaction. If that’s true, the culture war battle lines will be as crisply drawn as ever.
One thing is certain: The move to ban the course is good politics for DeSantis if he wants to inherit — or swipe — the mantle of GOP leadership from Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Arecent poll shows nearly 80% of Republicans oppose teaching “Critical Race Theory” and that 43% oppose teaching about racism at all.
Small wonder that DeSantis’ fellow Republican, Nikki Haley, who harbors higher office ambitions of her own, weighed in with a tersely tweetedswipe at CRT herself earlier this week.
What do you think? Is DeSantis protecting kids from indoctrination, or is he censoring legitimate academic viewpoints? Let us know here (**hides under desk**) – and if you include your name and location, we might publish your response.
- Ian Explains: Will voters care about "anti-woke" politics in 2024? - GZERO Media ›
- The identity politics trap - GZERO Media ›
- Pioneering Black American leaders in US foreign policy - GZERO Media ›
- Are identity politics a trap? A conversation with author and political scientist Yascha Mounk - GZERO Media ›
Biden's immigration play, failing students, eye on debates
With Midterm Matters, we are counting down to the US midterm elections on Nov. 8 by separating the signal from the noise on election-related news.
Biden’s pre-midterm immigration play
The number of Venezuelan migrants arriving at the US southern border has plummeted by 90% since President Joe Biden invoked Title 42 (a Trump-era law allowing the expulsion of asylum-seekers on public health grounds) earlier this month.
Noise: Biden positions himself as an advocate of a “fair and humane” immigration system and recently said that he is looking to speed up the processing of asylum applications.
Signal: But Biden is quietly clamping down on illegal migration. He recently reversed course and is building parts of Trump’s border wall and has agreed to hand over $1 billion for “border security.” While Democrats in border states like Arizona Senator Mark Kelly extol their party’s tough-on-immigration stance as they face off in close races, the White House is keeping it on the down-low so as not to isolate the left flank of the Democratic Party.
How will failing grades for US students add up?
Reading and math skills among US schoolchildren declined significantly over the past two years, according to a national educational assessment released Monday. The declines – only 26% of eighth graders and 36% of fourth graders ranked proficient – were the steepest in the assessment’s 30-year history. The results throw the academic impact of pandemic-driven school closures into sharp relief just days before the midterms.
Noise: The results will provide a messaging boost to candidates, particularly from the GOP, who are seeking the votes of moderate Democrat or Independent parents frustrated by the educational impact of school closures, which tended to be more extensive in Democrat-controlled districts.
Signal: "Red state vs. blue state” might not be the most useful lens for the data. Some states that were more cautious, such as California or Massachusetts, fared about as well as states like Texas or Florida that re-opened sooner. But across red/blue lines, the learning of students from poorer households, which generally have fewer resources to facilitate remote learning, were disproportionately harmed by school closures. This deepening inequality, and the debate about how to address it, will last beyond Nov. 8.
DeSantis' 2024 debate prep & Fetterman's health
This week features two big midterm debates. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis will trade blows on Monday with Democratic challenger Charlie Crist, a former congressman and governor. On Tuesday, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) faces his Republican rival for the Senate, celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz.
Noise: DeSantis will likely cruise to a comfortable reelection as he prepares his 2024 White House run. Fetterman is also leading his rival, though by a smaller margin, with Oz taking flak for being a carpetbagger from New Jersey.
Signal: DeSantis might use the opportunity as debate prep against someone who won't be in the room but is 100% guaranteed to be watching: former President Donald Trump. Florida's governor is a rising GOP star, but he'll need serious debate chops to get in any zingers against Trump if he runs in 2024. Fetterman, for his part, hopes to look energetic next to the Trump-endorsed Oz. After all, he suffered a stroke in the middle of his primary campaign, and voters want to know whether he's healthy enough to be a senator.
The Graphic Truth: Who pays most/least for college tuition?
One of the many reasons Americans have so much student debt is the high tuition fees charged by universities — especially private ones. Then again, graduating from an elite private school generally leads to a higher future salary and more opportunities, so many US students are willing to risk enormous debt in hopes of a huge payoff. But what about the rest of the world? We take a look at tuition fees across OECD countries.
Hard Numbers: French teachers strike, Spanish doctors compensated, Lula soaring in Brazil, Biden pledges more COVID tests
75: Around 75 percent of French primary school teachers participated in a strike this week against the government’s handling of the pandemic. The teacher's union says that President Emmanuel Macron is putting educators at risk by constantly changing safety standards and protocols amid the ballooning omicron wave.
153: A group of 153 Spanish doctors won a lawsuit against the regional government in Valencia over inadequate PPE supply during the early days of the pandemic. A judge awarded compensation ranging from 5,000 to 49,000 euros ($5,732-56,177) per plaintiff because health workers were only given one face mask a week and expected to reuse gowns.
45: Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva would win 45 percent of the vote if the October presidential election were held today. According to a new survey, the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro would only get 23 percent.
500 million: The Biden administration will purchase an additional 500 million COVID tests to be distributed for free to Americans. Half a billion tests had already been purchased, but they won’t reach US households until later this month, which critics say is too little, too late.
Hard Numbers: The world's longest school closures, India's regional votes, Bulgaria’s shrinking population, Suu Kyi convicted again
30: After being shuttered for close to two years because of COVID, Ugandan schools finally reopened Monday. But the government says that 30 percent of students might never return to school because they have started work to help support their families or been forced into marriages. Some 15 million children have been impacted by these closures.
5: Indian officials say they will proceed with five state elections on February 10 despite record numbers of new omicron cases that have prompted fresh lockdowns in some states. However, pre-voting rallies have been banned, which is a particularly big deal for candidates in Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state, where opposition forces are trying to chip away at the dominance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
11: Bulgaria’s population shrunk by more than 11 percent over the past decade, according to its latest census data. The country has the lowest per capita income in the European Union, and many younger residents have left to pursue economic opportunities elsewhere, while birth rates continue to decline.