Dumbing Down America: Why an Uneducated Public is a Politician’s Dream

There’s an old saying: An educated people can’t be controlled. So what do you do if your entire political strategy depends on keeping power by keeping people ignorant? You gut the very systems that educate them.

The Trump administration’s push to dismantle the Department of Education isn’t about “returning power to the states” or “reducing bureaucracy” like they claim. It’s about defunding public education, restricting access to knowledge, and making it easier to manipulate voters who don’t know any better. Because let’s be real—uninformed people are easier to scare, easier to lie to, and easier to control. And that’s exactly the point.

But this isn’t a sudden move. It’s been tested in key states for years, laying the groundwork for a full-scale national rollback of education that benefits politicians who thrive on misinformation and manufactured outrage.

The Blueprint for Ignorance: What’s Already Happening in the States

If you want a glimpse of what a defunded, hyper-politicized education system looks like, just check out Florida, Texas, Tennessee, and Arizona, where conservative leaders have already been erasing history, banning books, and cutting funding for public schools.

✅ Florida: Ron DeSantis led a full-scale attack on education, restricting what teachers can say about race, history, and basic social issues. His administration banned AP African American Studies, made it illegal to discuss LGBTQ+ topics in classrooms, and defunded diversity programs in public colleges. Teachers are leaving the profession in record numbers, fearing retaliation for simply teaching facts.

✅ Texas: The state government has gutted public school funding, prioritized private school vouchers, and rewritten history books to downplay slavery and the civil rights movement. New laws make it easier to ban books without public oversight, with entire school districts purging books about racism, LGBTQ+ rights, and even classic literature.

✅ Tennessee: Lawmakers have made it illegal for schools to teach anything that makes students “uncomfortable” about race or gender—which, let’s be honest, is just a loophole to silence conversations about systemic racism and inequality. On top of that, Tennessee passed a law allowing parents to remove books they personally object to, meaning a single complaint can erase knowledge for an entire school.

✅ Arizona: Public school funding has been stripped to the bone, while massive taxpayer subsidies are funneled into private and religious schools through the largest school voucher program in the country, despite voters rejected this. The result? Public education is collapsing while unregulated religious schools push conservative political agendas—all on the taxpayer’s dime.

And now, Trump wants to take this nationwide.

What Gutting the Department of Education Really Means

The Trump administration, backed by Project 2025, wants to eliminate the Department of Education entirely—which would strip away federal protections for marginalized students, cut funding for low-income schools, and remove national education standards.

📌 Defunding Public Schools: When public schools lose funding, it disproportionately harms lower-income communities. Wealthier areas will still find ways to support their schools through local taxes and private donations, while underfunded schools will collapse. This will widen the education gap, leaving millions of students without access to quality education.

📌 Expanding Private School Vouchers: This isn’t about “school choice”—it’s about redirecting public money to private and religious institutions that don’t have to follow the same regulations as public schools. Many of these institutions teach conservative propaganda, leaving students less prepared for critical thinking and higher education. (Prager University has an entire curriculum on this already)

📌 Politicizing Curriculum: By allowing states to decide what is taught, conservative-controlled legislatures will have free rein to erase history, push nationalist propaganda, and ban discussions on race, gender, and inequality. This isn’t just bad education policy—it’s indoctrination under the guise of “protecting children.”

The System is Broken—But Destroying It Makes It Worse

No one is saying the Department of Education is perfect. Public schools are underfunded, overcrowded, and struggling with teacher shortages, and in many cases, standardized testing has done more harm than good. The way schools are funded in the U.S. is deeply flawed, relying heavily on local property taxes, which means wealthier areas get well-funded schools, while low-income communities are left with outdated textbooks, crumbling buildings, and fewer resources. The gap between rich and poor districts is massive, and it’s no secret that Black, Brown, and low-income students are hit the hardest.

But here’s the thing—getting rid of the Department of Education doesn’t fix any of this. It makes it worse. The federal government may not provide the bulk of school funding, but that 8% it does contribute? It keeps low-income schools afloat, funds special education programs, and ensures millions of kids have access to school meal assistance. Without federal oversight, states could slash these programs entirely, leaving marginalized students with even fewer opportunities.

This isn’t speculation—it’s already happening in states like Arizona, Texas, and Florida, where leaders have been aggressively cutting public education funding, pushing school voucher programs that funnel taxpayer dollars into private and religious schools, and erasing key parts of history from curriculums. Eliminating the Department of Education at the federal level would give these states even more power to defund public schools, rewrite curricula unchecked, and leave millions of students without the resources they need to succeed.

Yes, the system needs to change. But dismantling the one federal agency that's supposed to hold states accountable, protects marginalized students, and provides essential funding for struggling schools isn’t reform—it’s sabotage.

Why Undermining Education is a Power Move

This isn’t just about cutting budgets—it’s about controlling the narrative. The less people understand history, government, and their own rights, the easier it is to manipulate them into accepting authoritarian rule.

Think about it:

🔹 If students don’t learn how voting works, it’s easier to suppress their votes.

🔹 If they never learn about systemic racism, they won’t fight against policies that uphold it.

🔹 If they aren’t taught critical thinking, they’ll believe whatever politicians tell them—no matter how absurd.

And that’s exactly the goal. Because the more uninformed the population, the easier it is to convince people to vote against their own interests—or worse, to convince them that voting doesn’t matter at all.

How We Fight Back

This isn’t just a debate over education policy—it’s a deliberate strategy to weaken democracy. If we let the dismantling of education continue, we’re handing over the next generation to become more easily manipulated, radicalized, and controlled.

Here’s what needs to happen:

1️⃣ Fight for Public Education Funding – Because an educated society is a free society. If funding keeps getting slashed, the divide between who gets a quality education and who doesn’t will only grow.

2️⃣ Push Back Against Curriculum Censorship – History should be taught as it happened, not as politicians want it to be remembered. Letting ideologues decide what kids can and can’t learn is a slippery slope toward propaganda.

3️⃣ Call This Strategy What It Is—A Direct Attack on Democracy – The people pushing these policies aren’t just conservatives with different priorities—they’re actively trying to dismantle public education for political gain.

Trump and his allies know exactly what they’re doing. The only question is: Do we?