In a recent letter posted on the Department of Education website, newly appointed Secretary Linda McMahon claims, “there is nobody more qualified than a parent to make educational decisions for their children.” In addition to the latest layoffs of half of ED employees and the threat to complete elimination of the department, this stance is extremely alarming.
As a parent, this statement initially resonates with me. After all, who cares more about a child’s future than their parents? However, as someone committed to preparing future English teachers, I see a troubling false dichotomy in this reasoning, one that pits parental love against professional expertise.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, America learned that remote learning resulted in widespread learning loss, “revealing unprecedented declines in both math and reading achievement.”. Parents, overwhelmed with the demands of teaching their children, often found themselves wishing for someone else to lead the educational effort, even when schools provided resources.
This artificial divide mirrors a broader pattern in the current educational discourse: the devaluation of specialized knowledge. When McMahon’s letter calls for eliminating “red tape” and “bureaucracy” in education, it’s not only targeting administrative inefficiencies; it’s questioning the very idea that teaching requires professional expertise developed through years of study and practice.
Consider your most influential teacher—the one who recognized your potential when others overlooked it, the one who knew exactly how to reach you when a concept seemed impossible. Their effectiveness wasn’t accidental.
During the 2020-2021 school year, 90% of teachers held state teaching certificates or advanced professional certificates, and about 60% of teachers held advanced degrees. These teachers acquired deep knowledge of both their subject matter and how students learn.
In the field of English Language Arts, great teaching is never about simply delivering information; it’s about creating connections. It’s understanding how to guide students through the complexities of a text, how to help them ask questions that reveal deeper meanings, and how to help young readers see themselves and others more deeply. This specialized knowledge isn’t bureaucratic excess—it’s the foundation of effective literacy teaching.
The letter’s call to return “to basics” is appealing in its simplicity. But in reality, teaching even “basic” skills requires sophisticated expertise. A first-grade teacher helping students decode text draws on intricate knowledge of phonological awareness, working memory, and developing orthographic systems.
A high school English teacher does more than focus on grammar; they help students find their voice, articulate their thoughts, and engage with readers. These aren’t basic techniques; they represent bodies of professional knowledge developed through decades of research and practice.
This dismissal of educational expertise reflects what Yale University Philosophy Professor and author Jason Stanley identifies as a persistent strain of anti-intellectualism in American culture—a suspicion of specialized knowledge in favor of “common sense” approaches, a hostility toward intellectual pursuits and intellectual reasoning.
The author of the 2023 book, The Politics of Language, purports that it is from this anti-intellectualism that literacy means basic skills development instead of an expansive approach that identifies literacy as an intellectual pursuit, one that might assist students in understanding how to read the world around them.
The consequences of devaluing educational expertise extend far beyond the classroom. When critics reduce education to its simplest components—focusing exclusively on “meaningful learning in math, reading, science, and history”—it risks developing students who can read words but struggle to evaluate complex arguments, who can solve equations but are ill-equipped to navigate a world flooded with sophisticated misinformation.
A 2025 Nature study on discernment of false information shows, “Adolescents might face a greater risk of believing fake news, particularly fake news that is shared via social media, because of their vulnerabilities in terms of reasoning.” This isn’t just an educational problem; it’s a democratic one, as meaningful citizenship requires the ability to navigate complexity.
I’ve witnessed the tangible effects of this devaluation firsthand. Each year, bright, capable people hesitate to enter teaching, deterred by public rhetoric that portrays their developing expertise as unnecessary bureaucracy. This has contributed to teacher shortages across the nation.
Many veteran teachers express they are demoralized when their professional judgment is dismissed as ideological rather than grounded in years of training and experience. One-third of teachers report being extremely or very satisfied with their jobs, while fewer than half are satisfied with the freedom they have over their curriculum.
To move forward, it is critical to reject false dichotomies. Parental involvement doesn’t oppose teacher expertise; it complements it. Basic skills aren’t separate from critical thinking; they’re foundational to it. Simplicity in education isn’t a virtue if it fails to prepare students for the complexities they’ll face outside the classroom.
It is necessary to renew respect for the professional knowledge that makes teaching not only “the most noble profession” in rhetoric, but also in practice. This requires investing in teacher preparation programs that foster a deep understanding of both content and pedagogy.
It means creating school environments where teachers can exercise professional judgment. And it means engaging in honest conversations about the complexities of learning without retreating into oversimplified visions of education’s purpose.
Education isn’t just another political battlefield—it’s where professional educators prepare children for their futures. They deserve an education that equips them not just with answers, but with the tools to ask sophisticated questions; not just with certainties, but with the intellectual skills to navigate uncertainty.
They deserve teachers who are equipped with both subject knowledge and the professional expertise to make that knowledge accessible to every student. Debating the future of education, it is urgent not to sacrifice true expertise for the sake of simplicity.