By: Christopher Jenkins
April 8, 2025
In 2005, Philadelphia became the first essential city to make African American history mandatory to graduate from high school. The Philadelphia school district did this to highlight the importance of African American history.
However, Philadelphia is an anomaly compared to the rest of the country. In the United States, only about 8-9 percent of schools teach African American history in their curriculum. Furthermore, under 10 percent of classwork is dedicated to teaching African American History to students. It’s a curriculum that teachers at Carver, including Ms. Moore-Almond, say is essential for student learning, one that will help them as they grow into adulthood.
“I think that they are losing out on an opportunity to really grapple with the complexities of American history,” said Ms. Moore-Almond, an African American History teacher at Engineering and Science. “I also think that they will be losing out on a legacy of activism.”
Republicans believe that the Department of Education is pushing what they describe as a woke ideology to different students in the curriculum about topics like gender and race. “The Department of Education has spent too long pushing woke policies instead of focusing on student success,” said Chairwoman Lisa McClain of Michigan.
However, Republican lawmakers' efforts extend beyond their own beliefs and into the efforts to defend the Department of Education. The funding of the Department of Education is not very substantial. The Department of Education has a funding of 268 billion dollars a year, less than 2 percent of the total federal budget, while the United States military spends around 800 billion dollars a year. All of these efforts come as a the Trump the administration has laid off thousands of federal employees In what the administration says is an attempt to “cut waste, fraud and abuse.”
“In Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, the United States spent approximately $883.7 billion on national defense including $841.4 billion for the Department of Defense, $32.4 billion for national security programs within the Department of Energy, and $438.0 million in defense-related activities.”
In the United States, 12 out of 50 states require African American history in their curriculum, and 16 states have restrictions on the topic of race and racism in their curriculum, including Florida.
“The Stop WOKE Act, also known as the Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act and redubbed the Individual Freedom Act, is a Florida state law that prohibited schools and businesses from teaching certain concepts related to race, gender, racism, and social privilege.”
Furthermore, bills like the Arkansas House Bill 1218 and the West Virginia Senate Bill 558 restrict teachers of African American history, and the fight to teach African American History has been seen throughout history multiple times.
“Younger teachers just can’t roll over and just say, 'okay, it has to be like this because the President ordered it or mandated it,” said Mr. Milton, an African American teacher. “Now they have to take things into their own hands and still find a way to put it into their curriculum, and still teach it.”
The first department of education would truly begin back in 1867 where it was used to collect information and statistics about the nation's schools. It was made a cabinet-level agency in 1980, and has been helping students even more in the education system today.
“The Department's elementary and secondary programs annually serve nearly 18,200 school districts and over 50 million students attending roughly 98,000 public schools and 32,000 private schools. Department programs also provide grant, loan, and work-study assistance to more than 12 million postsecondary students.”
If the Department of Education gets shut down, around 180,000 teachers will be affected by the ban, and funding for public schools will also significantly decrease.
“I mean it just gives teachers anxiety,” said Ms. Moore Almond. “It makes teachers afraid of what happens for doing their jobs in an authentic way and telling the truth.”
Page updated
Report abuse