To The Reader’s Forum:

I am writing in response to a recent column by Star Parker on April 3, 2025. Titled, “Shut Down the Department of Education ASAP”. This article has a number of fallacies. Star refers to the NEA (National Education Association) as controlling education, along with the Department of Education. This is not true. The NEA does not aspire to control education, and the Education Department is not responsible for curriculum, as she infers with, “Today the massive teacher’s unions – the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers – aspire the same control over education as the Klan did in the 1920’s.” and “…the teacher’s unions want a culture purged of the Bible, purged of Biblical truth”….

For starters, The Teachers’ Unions do not run the Department of Education. Second, Teacher’s Unions do not aspire to create curriculum. Local school districts, and local school boards, along with State Education departments, decide curriculum. Teachers are required to follow set curriculum in their district – which varies by state and local Board decisions.

Also mentioned in Ms. Parker’s op-ed piece was the falsehood that teachers, ‘want our schools to become factories for their bigoted view of the world’, and ‘want a culture purged of the Bible, purged of Biblical truths, purged of the traditional values of households.” Teachers are not contractually allowed to teach the Bible or religious views, and moreover, these are areas that parents are responsible for teaching to their children- not teachers.

None of this article, in fact, has anything at all to do with our federal Department of Education, as the title implies. The Department of Educations is only responsible for funding valuable programs such as Universal Pre-k, Title I funding, and countless programs that help our children from toddlers up to and including college loans and grants. The Department of Education does not control curriculum as she wrongly implies and shutting it down would be a tragedy for all of our nations’ children!

Lisa Towne

Perrysburg