June 16, 2025
Donald Trump’s multiple threats to eliminate the Department of Education concerns teachers in states with a well-documented history of inequitable funding and racial disparity.
Donald Trump’s repeated threats to dismantle the Department of Education are sparking concern among educators—particularly in states like Mississippi, where longstanding issues of unequal funding and racial disparities persist. Some Black teachers in the state recently told the Pulitzer Center they’re feeling added pressure as a result.
Erica Jones, the executive director of the Mississippi Association of Teachers, described the myriad pressures and the weight of being a Black teacher in that state.
“I had the best classroom data and great relationships with my students,” said Jones, who is Black. “Yet a Black parent still asked for their child to be moved to a white teacher’s classroom. It made me question—was it just my skin color?”
Jones continued, “Black teachers understand their job doesn’t stop when the bell rings. We carry the weight of uplifting Black children in a system built to push them down.”
Several studies support Jones’ remarks. Research has examined how the school-to-prison pipeline disproportionately affects Black students, contributing to higher rates of disciplinary action and contact with the criminal justice system. Additionally, a study published in the Economics of Education Review found that Black teachers tend to have higher expectations for Black students compared to white teachers, highlighting potential disparities in how student potential is perceived across racial lines.
Other teachers, like a 35-year-old Mississippi Delta educator, who remained anonymous because of concerns over potential retaliation, described a school administrator she worked under who handicapped the abilities of their faculty because of intense micromanagement.
“She controlled everything—schedules, lesson plans, even how long kids could go to the restroom,” she said. “There was no room to teach. Just surveillance and stress.”
Eventually, after the environment began to take a toll on her health, she, along with other educators, decided to leave the school for their own benefit.
According to Grace Breazeale, the director of research and K-12 policy at Mississippi First, a nonprofit public policy organization, eliminating the Department of Education would mean that more states, particularly states in the South, would look a lot like Mississippi, and by doing so, would exact a toll on the mental well-being of Black teachers.
“There’s just no telling what states like ours would do if given total control. Federal oversight is often the only thing holding Mississippi accountable for providing even the bare minimum,” Breazeale told the Pulitzer Center.
She concluded, “Mississippi’s deep history of racism still permeates its policies. Raising teacher salaries and fully funding education initiatives would be valuable first steps.”
In addition, as ProPublica reported in May, since the Department of Education has slashed its workforce and closed civil rights offices, investigating actual discrimination in schools has been rendered impossible, while the department’s main civil rights office is engaged in ridding schools of diversity efforts, citing anti-discrimination edicts in the process.
Within the context of the education system, an anti-diversity policy also means that disabled students, students with special needs, or students who need individualized support will be abandoned, just as they are currently being left behind by the State of Mississippi’s education system.
“I wouldn’t have made it through school without the Department of Education. People think this won’t affect them, but it will—especially kids with IEPs [Individualized Education Programs for students with special needs], free lunch programs, and Title I funding,” said Montrell Allen, a first-grade teacher in Natchez. “It’s crushing. We’re already struggling to stay afloat, and now they’re threatening to pull the lifeboat away.”
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