Florida’s Education: Power Plays Masquerading as Reform

Published: April 9, 2025

By Laurie Danielle Lee | The LDY Perspective

Amid the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, Florida legislators appear to be playing their own supporting role. Several new bills introduced this session reflect not just a state-level shift in education policy—but a deliberate ideological project to defund, defang, and destabilize public education as we know it.

Let’s unpack what’s happening.

House Bill 5101: Targeting College Readiness

Florida's proposed HB 5101 directly threatens the future of college readiness programs. Dual Enrollment, Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and AICE programs have long provided academically ambitious students—especially those from under-resourced communities—a critical bridge to higher education.

This bill would slash state reimbursement to districts for these offerings, undercutting funding for teachers, materials, and exam fees. The result? Students may see fewer course offerings and fewer supports for succeeding in them.

It’s hard not to see the irony: this is happening in a state that often touts "choice" and "rigor"—but only when it fits a particular political narrative. Undermining advanced coursework options does not promote equity; it limits access to opportunity under the guise of cost-cutting.

Senate Bill 166: Weakening Oversight

Next, SB 166 proposes exempting district school boards from certain rulemaking procedures and eliminating internal auditing requirements in specific cases. Proponents claim this will improve efficiency. But without independent checks, it’s difficult to see how this won’t open the door to corruption, mismanagement, or worse—especially in a state already struggling with educational accountability.

Public education is a public trust. Stripping it of oversight is not reform—it’s deregulation with consequences.

Standardized Testing Reform—or Standards Abandonment?

In yet another move, the Florida Senate has passed legislation that removes the requirement for students to pass Algebra I and Grade 10 English Language Arts assessments in order to graduate. While the argument for reducing test anxiety is valid, lowering academic expectations without offering more robust alternative assessments is educational malpractice.

Students deserve better than “pass everyone” policies that sacrifice rigor for optics. If the goal is to improve outcomes, the answer is investment and innovation—not academic abandonment.

Connecting the Dots: A Broader Political Project

These bills don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re part of a coordinated retreat from public accountability in education, aligning perfectly with the Trump administration’s public attacks on the Department of Education and its open desire to abolish it altogether.

From Washington to Tallahassee, we are witnessing a systemic push to reframe education not as a public good but as a battleground for partisan agendas. By weakening public systems, these policies create space for privatized alternatives—often with less transparency, fewer regulations, and questionable educational outcomes.

Conclusion: State Control Shouldn’t Mean State Sabotage

Florida lawmakers are quick to use the language of “freedom” and “local control,” but we should be asking: freedom for whom, and at what cost?

The current legislative trend undermines not only the quality of education but the trust families place in public institutions. These aren’t just policy proposals—they’re a blueprint for a two-tiered system, where only the well-resourced can access a rigorous, future-facing education.

We must resist the hollowing-out of public education under the guise of reform. Our students—and our democracy—deserve nothing less.

Sources:

Goldin, Melissa & McDermott, Jennifer. “Trump Signs Orders Aimed at Boosting Coal, Misrepresents Industry Realities.” AP, April 9, 2025.

WUSF News

Local10.com

Florida Senate Bill 166

By Laurie Danielle Lee 

April 1, 2025 | The LDY Perspective – Policy & Legislation

In a move more symbolic than legal, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 20 instructing his administration to begin dismantling the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). The order, praised by far-right interest groups and condemned by civil rights advocates, is yet another volley in an ongoing war against federal oversight, equality enforcement, and public education itself.

But here’s the legal bottom line: Trump can’t shut down the Department of Education. Only Congress can.

The Constitution Still Exists. Congress Created the DOE. Only Congress Can Eliminate It.

Established in 1979 by an act of Congress, the Department of Education cannot be legally dismantled without legislative repeal. The executive branch can shuffle funding, undermine operations, and issue directives—but the legal authority to dissolve the agency remains exclusively with Congress.

Trump’s order urges the Secretary of Education to take steps to “facilitate the closure” of the agency “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” That phrasing is intentionally vague, it sounds like action while dodging constitutional boundaries.

This isn’t policy. It’s performance.

More Than Bureaucracy: What the DOE Actually Does

Critics often claim the Department of Education is a bloated federal agency micromanaging schools. That’s false. States and local districts already control curricula, testing, teacher certification, and instructional standards.

The DOE’s job is to ensure baseline equity and administer federal education funding that supports:

• Low-income schools (Title I)
• Students with disabilities (IDEA)
• Homeless youth (McKinney-Vento)
• Pell Grants and the federal student loan      system
• Civil rights enforcement (Title VI, Title IX, Section      504)
• Research and accountability (Institute of Education      Sciences)

This is the infrastructure the administration seeks to dismantlenot just an agency, but the nation’s only institutional backstop against discriminatory and inequitable educational practices.

Who Pays the Price? Rural Communities, Poor Kids, and Disabled Students

Let’s set aside the rhetoric and look at the numbers.

Rural school districts—which overwhelmingly voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2024, receive more 

federal education funding per student than their suburban and urban counterparts. Why? Because the very structural challenges these communities face, under-resourced schools, sparse tax bases, teacher shortages make them especially reliant on federal aid.

When you cut Title I, broadband subsidies, teacher grants, and school meal programs, you're not hitting some imagined "liberal elite." You're gutting the only real support system that many conservative, working-class communities have left.

This isn't just cruel. It's ironic. It’s political betrayal wrapped in patriotic packaging.

This Isn’t About Local Control. It’s About Removing Oversight.

The language of “local control” sounds noble until you realize what’s being lost: the right of students—particularly marginalized students, to learn in safe, funded, and legally compliant schools.

Let’s be honest: this isn’t about streamlining government. It’s about eliminating federal guardrails on:

• Racial and gender discrimination
• Special education access
• Disparities in discipline
• Inequities in funding and access

It’s no coincidence that the Office for Civil Rights has already been gutted. Transferring its work to the Department of Justice would sideline education-specific protections under the weight of political agendas.

This isn’t deregulation. It’s deregulated harm.

Legal Reality vs. Political Theater

Even if Trump can’t legally shutter the DOE without Congress, the damage is still being done. Workforce cuts, budget reductions, and strategic messaging are already eroding trust in the institution and stripping it of its authority.

Let’s remember: the last attempt to eliminate the DOE legislatively failed in 2023, not only because of Democrats but because 60 House Republicans voted no. Even some of Trump’s ideological allies understand that gutting the department would mean throwing underserved students to the wolves.

Former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, a Republican called the order a distraction from student achievement. She’s right. It’s a sideshow in a long-running culture war, designed to enrage rather than improve.

You Can’t Burn Down a System Without Replacing It

Even if you believe the DOE is flawed, and there are valid critiques, especially around overemphasis on standardized testing, here’s what you must consider: most of the testing mandates come from state and district policies, not the federal government. Scrapping the DOE won’t fix “teaching to the test.” It will simply remove the oversight that ensures those tests aren’t used to justify injustice.

If the department were truly irreparable, which it isn’t, you’d still need a thoughtful, legally sound, and operationally coherent plan to replace it. So far, this administration has no such plan, just talking points, vengeance politics, and applause lines for people unwilling to fact-check their own beliefs.

The people most harmed will not be those in power. They’ll be the kids. Kids in mobile homes. Kids with IEPs. Kids who go to school hungry. Kids who live in the very towns where “federal overreach” is the latest scapegoat for decades of underinvestment.

So before you celebrate, ask yourself this:

Are you cheering for your own community to lose access to broadband, free meals, and special education?

Are you applauding the removal of civil rights protections for your neighbors’ kids?

Do you truly want “freedom” if it means losing the only institution that ensures your state doesn’t leave your child behind?

Freedom without structure is not liberty. It’s chaos.
And chaos always hurts the vulnerable first.

Sources:

Collin Binkley & Chris      Megerian, “Trump Signs Executive Order to Dismantle the Education      Department.” Associated Press, March 20, 2025

U.S. Department of Education,      Civil Rights and Title Program Summaries

National Center for Education      Statistics (NCES)

Education Law Center, “Title I      Funding and Rural Impact”

Government Accountability Office      (GAO) Reports on IDEA & McKinney-Vento Compliance