On Tuesday night, MSNBC’s Jen Psaki sounded the alarm on The Briefing to warn against the Trump administration's desire to “dismantle” the Department of Education. Despite fear mongering talking points, Psaki failed to generate any concrete opposition for the cuts and instead claimed essential programs would collapse.
Instead of offering a balanced viewpoint on the situation, Psaki elected to spew this about the cuts to the Department of Education:
This is the part that concerns me the most, the ones who will bear most of the brunt are our country’s most vulnerable students, and we are just weeks away from kids going back to school in many parts of the country.
Because despite what some conservatives might say, the Education Department does not dictate woke curricula for schools, in fact, it does not set any curricula at all. The department primarily helps fund programs that support low income students, as well as students with disabilities. And the five states that will be hit hardest by these cuts all happen to be states that Trump won. The Department of Education is also responsible for enforcing civil rights law and overseeing student loans and grants, and if the Trump administration does indeed fire nearly 1.400 staffers, which is the stated plan, many of those essential programs that people across the country rely on will likely collapse.
Psaki’s claim that cuts were targeting the most vulnerable was false; Title One funding, which supported low-income students, would be preserved and moved to a different agency, according to the administration. The same would be true for funding to students with disabilities, it would most likely be moved to a department like Health and Human Services.
Psaki also claimed the Education Department didn’t “dictate woke curricula for schools.” While the department didn’t directly formulate the lesson plans or mandate which specific books and sources to use, it could put pressure to nudge districts into certain directions.
For example, in March of 2025 the Trump administration cut $600 million in grants for “divisive teacher training.” This training told teachers to take personal responsibility for systemic racism while calling on them to “respond to systemic forms of oppression” including “gender-based” discrimination and ageism.
To Psaki, this was not setting curriculum, just allowing DEI to continue to perverse the Education Department.
In an interview with Democratic Minnesota Senate Candidate Peggy Flanagan, Psaki probed for her stance on the matter, teeing her up to call the cuts “inhumane and cruel”:
PSAKI: I mean, you’ve worked on education on a local level. As I mentioned, they do not set curricula, but what could the impact of this be if it is followed through?
PEGGY FLANAGAN: So, I think it’s the — just the combined chaos of multiple things that are happening. The dismantling of the Department of Education, you know, as you said, it’s been established to protect students, the most vulnerable students, students with disabilities, students who need a little extra help. It’s inhumane and it’s cruel, and states are going to have to, you know, pick up the slack and we will do as much as we can, but we can’t do it all.
Our education system has been stagnant and even declining in some areas, 70 percent of eighth graders were below proficient in reading in 2022 and around the same was true in math.
The DOE had failed to noticeably improve education since its inception in 1979. Instead of bringing up how an over centralized approach may be hindering students, Psaki chose to fearmonger with leftist talking points.
The full transcript is below. Click "expand" to view:
MSNBC’s The Briefing With Jen Psaki
9:45:35 PM ET
July 15th, 2025JEN PSAKI: Yesterday, the conservative majority on the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can, for now, move forward with its plans to dismantle the Department of Education. Which, I mean, I know there is a lot of stuff going on, we’ve talked about a lot of it on the show, but that is a very, very big deal. That is going to hit a lot of people in this country very hard. I mean, for one, it’s unclear whether Trump can even legally do that, so we’ll say that.
There’s a case on that matter that is currently moving through the lower courts, and what the Supreme Court did was effectively step in and say, before you decide if that's legal we’re going to allow it for the time being, so there’s that. If that wasn’t concerning enough, this is the part that concerns me the most, the ones who will bear most of the brunt are our country’s most vulnerable students, and we are just weeks away from kids going back to school in many parts of the country.
Because despite what some conservatives might say, the Education Department does not dictate woke curricula for schools, in fact, it does not set any curricula at all. The department primarily helps fund programs that support low income students, as well as students with disabilities. And the five states that will be hit hardest by these cuts all happen to be states that Trump won. The Department of Education is also responsible for enforcing civil rights law and overseeing student loans and grants, and if the Trump administration does indeed fire nearly 1.400 staffers, which is the stated plan, many of those essential programs that people across the country rely on will likely collapse.
The firings themselves are just one step towards Trump’s stated goal for the Department of Education, which is to shut it down completely, and what might come of that is more inequality and a further divided, scattershot approach to education in this country.
[INTERVIEW WITH MINNESOTA DEM SENATE CANDIDATE PEGGY FLANAGAN]
(...)
9:47:45 PM ET
PSAKI: I mean, you’ve worked on education on a local level. As I mentioned, they do not set curricula, but what could the impact of this be if it is followed through?
PEGGY FLANAGAN: So, I think it’s the — just the combined chaos of multiple things that are happening. The dismantling of the Department of Education, you know, as you said, it’s been established to protect students, the most vulnerable students, students with disabilities, students who need a little extra help. It’s inhumane and it’s cruel, and states are going to have to, you know, pick up the slack and we will do as much as we can, but we can’t do it all.
(...)
