Why Publish Arguments Hostile to Public Education? (Opinion)

To the Editor:

The recent trend of platforming certain right-wing opinion pieces at Education Week is both disturbing and dangerous in this moment in history. To be clear, our profession and the public at large deserve a robust debate on issues of importance in the field. However, publishing pieces like “The U.S. Department of Education Could Be Dismantled. This Is Good News” (June 25, 2025) and “Let DEI Practices Die. Replace Them With Something Better” (June 5, 2025) raise serious ethical questions about the responsibility of one of the most widely read professional publications. It saddens me that EdWeek is now elevating policy perspectives from opinion contributors that are clearly racist, hostile to public education, and supportive of the escalating authoritarian overreach we are now experiencing under the Trump administration.

The pieces cited above espouse policy perspectives that run counter to many fundamental values of public education, including the value and dignity of all people; the right to a free, high-quality public education for all; and the importance of creating welcoming, inclusive schools. The essays do not simply offer dissenting opinions but rather normalize the beliefs that not all students should be valued equally, that the rights of only some communities are to be protected, and that we should support state policies that gut public education. These beliefs also have the function of enabling dangerous authoritarian policies like “patriotic” education, book bans, and forbidding the teaching of truthful history to our children.

EdWeek has a responsibility to not simply platform all ideas. When the perspective being offered seeks to harm the institution of public education and our most marginalized students, there must be serious discussion about whether it should be published at all. And if published, it should receive the critique and context needed to understand the ideas for what they are.

Jeffrey Garrett
Consultant and Founder, JM Garrett Learning Group
Co-Host of All of the Above podcast
Los Angeles, Calif.