State Superintendent defends education

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond released the public statement below in reaction to the Executive Order intending to dismantle the United States Department of Education in a March 20 press release.

“While today’s Executive Order signals an intent to dis­mantle the United States De­partment of Education (ED), we want to reiterate once again that an Executive Order is not law, and that Congress alone holds the authority to close a department that Congress cre­ated. Any change to the federal government’s obligations to pro­tect students’ access to public education must come from con­gressional action,” stated Thur­mond.

Thurmond said this executive order is unlawful for the Execu­tive Branch to enact alone and claims to champion local control in education while threatening state and local educational en­tities will lose funding if they exercise local control in their polices and curricula.

“Outside of this order, recent actions by the administration have caused real harm to stu­dents, families, and educators, including the elimination of contracts with agencies who provide supports for schools and students and the sudden and irresponsible shuttering of the Office for Civil Rights in the most populous state,” he said. “California will continue to challenge these unlawful orders and actions in court. I already filed a declaration in the law­suit challenging the threats to withhold federal funding based on school curriculum. President Trump himself decried federal efforts to micromanage school curriculum in his first term in office.”

Thurmond said at the Califor­nia Department of Education, it will continue to make stra­tegic investments in progress, prosperity, and opportunities for all students. This includes its Move the Needle initiatives to improve students’ test scores in literacy and math, universal pre-kindergarten, and personal finance education.

“We will not stand idly by while the Trump Administra­tion continues to sow chaos, uncertainty, and interruptions of normal communication sur­rounding federal education pro­grams. We will combat these attempts to undermine educa­tional equity and opportunity and stay focused on our most important goal: improving ed­ucational results for our stu­dents,” he said.