It’s not uncommon to hear teachers emphasize the need for students to stay informed about the news. Some teachers will play CNN10 during a long period to catch up with the class on world events. Others, primarily in history classes, may host a socratic seminar or implement a quiz to test students’ knowledge.
I personally have struggled to see the special qualities that an everyday high schooler can gain from reading the news. After all, it’s unlikely that I’ll be immediately impacted because of an expansion in Korean arms making or election turmoil in Turkey.
That being said, there’s one news story that really could have an impact on Staples and its surrounding communities: the decision by President Donald Trump to dismantle the Department of Education. Not only will the removal in school funding that the department provides hurt students academically, it will greatly damage mental health services and extracurricular activities that are vital to adolescence development and well-being.
For those unaware of what the Department of Education is, it essentially does everything related to education except for actually teaching. Teaching is handled by state and local authorities who largely dictate what children learn and do from the moment they step into kindergarten to when they graduate from high school.
It instead primarily focuses on mundane financial activities, from managing $1.6 trillion in federal education loans to funding schools in low-income neighborhoods. It also collects and sends data on US schools to local departments to help them compare their pupils to neighboring states.
But just as significant are the department’s programs designed to aid students beyond the classroom. Programs it has created, like the Mental Health Services Grant Program, have enabled schools to hire counselors, train staff and refine mental health strategies for their students with resources that they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford.
Of course, schools in affluent areas like Westport are able to sustain these programs through local funding, but neighboring towns like Stamford, who have already in the past implemented budget cuts, will struggle to make up the difference to afford these services themselves.
More than that, extracurricular activities that many students depend on to serve as an outlet from high school stress and which allow them to explore their interests, such as the “We the People” program, rely on the department’s support in lesser-income towns.
Through grants that provide resources and mentorship alongside professional development for teachers, high schools like Wilbur Cross in New Haven and Trumbull High School have been able to allow their students to not only study the Constitution but also work together and cooperate. They have even gone on to perform with great distinction, with Trumbull having won 29 championships since its team’s inception.
And while the department’s shutdown will not end the teams directly, it will sever the vital resources that it provided for these teams and risk students losing an outlet that not only can help explore their interests but can also help them gain access to higher-tier universities.
