Explain Like I'm Five

One thing I haven’t seen yet is that it will basically end accreditation of colleges & universities.

Today if you get an MBA, PHD, etc. pretty much everybody knows what that means whether you got that degree from Harvard University, Penn State, or the University of Alabama. The standards for such degrees are pretty well known.

While the Department of Education doesn’t directly perform accreditation it does manage the standards that third parties use for the process. Get rid of the standards and those accreditation bodies will eventually start doing their own thing. So eventually one body might only offer accreditation to schools that promote certain religious values and ignore other educational standards, while another only offers accreditation to schools that pay kickbacks, etc.

If those sorts of things start to happen then accreditation will become largely meaningless, and college/university degrees won’t mean as much as they currently do.

I think it helps going to the source material on this. Most of the administration's moves have been pretty aligned with Project 2025, and it's written in an accessible enough way:

Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated. When power is exercised, it should empower students and families, not government. In our pluralistic society, families and students should be free to choose from a diverse set of school options and learning environments that best fit their needs. Our postsecondary institutions should also reflect such diversity, with room for not only “traditional” liberal arts colleges and research universities but also faith-based institutions, career schools, military academies, and lifelong learning programs.

I don't think it's in the administration's interest to make this seem like a prepared plan and part of an ultimately elitist philosophy, but if they actually explained it they would probably say that education should be subject to competition like other markets should be, with limited federal funding to states for excess expenditure, with the intention that education improves according to local (Christian) culture and parental involvement. The Department of Education currently tries to maintain federal standards for (more equitable) schooling, which is too general and prescriptive in this approach.

Probably not an ELI5 answer exactly, and I'm definitely not intending it as a supporting argument for this policy (it's very elitist and inequitable), but just wanted to share that at least there is written material that outlines some of this.

If the Department of Education goes away, rich states can still spend lots of money on schools, but poor states might not have enough. That means some kids get great teachers, new books, and nice schools, while others don’t. The government helps make sure all kids have a fair chance, no matter where they live. Without it, some schools might get worse, and some kids might not get the help they need to learn.

It's a move to segregate the schools once again both by race and wealth. The rich + white kids will have private schools paid for by everyone. The poor and/or non-white kids will have churches pretending to be schools. Anyone with any kind of disability won't have school at all.

There's no benefit for the common person, only downsides, and America as a whole is gonna get stupider. Rich people like it because it makes them richer, religious zealots like it because they get to push their indoctrination schools, and conservatives like it because conservatism goes up when education goes down. Rich people avoid most of it because they can afford private schooling and have legacy admission on their side

There is no benefit. The downside is republicans will infect religion into school, use tax funds for private schools, and public school will be privatized and will cost 3-4x more, free lunches won't be a thing. Families with hardships won't be able to afford to put their kids into a basic public school.

This is all part of the push to eliminate public education and replace it with private education funded by tax payer money but without all the oversight and regulation. Expect what has happened with charter schools but 10x.

Funding. Funding for people with special needs. Funding for schools in disadvantaged areas. Funding that pays for teachers and teachers aids who help teachers do their jobs.

As someone else said they are making public education shit so two things happen. First the folks who own private schools get richer, second poor people have yet another disadvantage and as second class citizens, will be more inclined to let the rich fuck them over so they can survive.

a hungry dog is an obedient dog

This is coming into the end game of things.

Keeping people stupid makes them easier to control as is evidenced by all the bullshit going on right now in America....

They say the reason was so they wouldn't have to pay 4400 employees salary, so, 4400 newly unemployed people is the benefit? I guess?

There's absolutely NO DOWNSIDE to Republican States Defunding EVERY SCHOOL except Bible Camp! That will make Republican State Workers VERY Hireable!