The announcement that the Department of Education (DOE) will lay off another 1,300 employees, reducing the staff to half its previous size of around 4,100, is more than a restructuring—it’s a direct assault an efforts to achieve reasonably equitable American education, en route to dreams of abolishing the DOE altogether. At the heart of this debate is not just hostility to social justice but an even more fundamental question: Does America want to be a unified country or merely a confederation of states with vastly different rules, standards, and rights?
In most contexts throughout history, the political Right everywhere has aligned itself with patriotism, emphasizing national unity and strength. Yet in the United States, conservatives often seem to push in the opposite direction, favoring so-called “states’ rights” over national cohesion. The reason is that many conservatives today are actually reactionaries who view states’ rights…
