OP-ED: If The Department Of Education Falls, So Do Black Families

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling with devastating implications last week, clearing the way for the Trump administration to carry out sweeping layoffs at the Department of Education. It’s the latest strike in a long game to defund, disempower and ultimately dismantle federal oversight of our public education system.

For Black families, this is more than a bureaucratic shakeup. It’s a direct attack.

The ruling is part of a broader conservative legal agenda that’s been years in the making—one that took a major leap forward when the court overturned the Chevron doctrine last year. That decision removed a foundational principle that allowed federal agencies to interpret and enforce laws passed by Congress. With that guardrail gone, the door is now wide open for future administrations to not only ignore the intent of education laws but to gut the very infrastructure built to uphold them.

And Trump has made his intentions clear: he wants to “shut down” the Department of Education. Now, with the court’s blessing, that goal is suddenly within reach. This move doesn’tjust put policy at risk. It puts people at risk, especially Black children and the women who raise and teach them.

The Department of Education exists because history has shown—time and again—that states alone cannot be trusted to protect marginalized students. Black students, particularly Black girls, are already failed by the system at disproportionate rates.They are six times more likely to be suspended than their white peers. They’re overpoliced, underprotected and pushed out of classrooms through discipline policies that criminalize their very existence.

The Department’s Office for Civil Rights has been one of the few tools available to hold schools accountable for these disparities. If the department is gutted, who will take up that charge?

We’re not talking about abstract legal theory. We’re talking about real consequences for real families. This agency ensures enforcement of Title IX protections, investigates civil rights violations, oversees implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and distributes billions of dollars in funding to under-resourced schools, many of which serve Black and brown children. Strip its authority, and those protections go with it.

We can’t talk about the education system without talking about the women who hold it together. Black women aren’t just sending our kids into these classrooms—we’re teaching in them. We’re working as early childhood educators, administrators and school board advocates. Black women make up 76% of Black teachers,or 6% of all teachers. Meanwhile, Black students comprised nearly 16% of the public school student population.

To weaken the Department of Education is to pull the rug out from under the women who are already overworked, underpaid and leading the fight for educational equity.

The dismantling of the Department of Education is not happening in isolation. It’s part of a larger agenda to shrink government, eliminate protections and shift public services into the hands of private interests. The plan is clear: privatize education, crush unions, slash anti-discrimination policies and leave only the wealthy with access to quality schooling.

We’ve seen this before.

We saw it under “separate but equal.” We saw it when schools in Black communities were shut down while charters flourished elsewhere. We’re seeing it now with attacks on DEI, book bans, curriculum whitewashing and the criminalization of parental advocacy.

And now, thanks to the court’s ruling, the federal agency that’s supposed to defend our children is being handed over to those who wish to destroy it.

At MomsRising, we’ve spent decades pushing for policies that support families—affordable childcare, equitable education, maternal health justice and paid leave. And we’ve learned that our rights are only as strong as the institutions built to enforce them.

That’s why this moment demands organized resistance. We must mobilize, vote and advocate for candidates who believe in strong public schools. We must demand transparency from school boards and fight for local protections even as federal ones are stripped away. And we must continue to build coalitions that bridge race, class  and geography—because this fight belongs to all of us.

The Department of Education may not be perfect, but it is one of the last lines of defense against systemic neglect. If we allow it to fall, we know who will suffer most, because we’ve lived it before.

Black mothers have always been at the forefront of justice movements. We’ve fought for school desegregation, curriculum reform, and fair funding. We are raising the next generation of thinkers, leaders, and freedom fighters.

We will not stand by as their futures and our democracy are sold off piece by piece.

Monifa Bandele is the Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer atMomsRising, where she leads national campaigns on education, maternal justice, and racial equity. A longtime organizer and mother herself, she has spent over two decades advocating for Black families. Monifa is also a founding member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movementand theMovement for Black Lives.

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