STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT - OCTOBER 21: A kindergarten room sits empty at Rogers International School as students from that class quarantine at home, according to parents, on October 21, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. Stamford Public Schools announced the previous week that a member of the school community had tested positive for COVID-19, although few details were given to the school at large. The school district is continuing the fall semester with a hybrid model, with in-class learning every other day and distance learning at home. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

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Education Secretary Linda McMahon has been clear about her desire to shut down the agency she runs. She’s laid off half the staff and joked about padlocking the door.

She calls it “the final mission.

But the department is not behaving like an agency that is simply winding down. Even as McMahon has shrunk the Department of Education, she’s operated in what she calls “a parallel universe” to radically shift how children will learn for years to come. The department’s actions and policies reflect a disdain for public schools and a desire to dismantle that system in favor of a range of other options — private, Christian and virtual schools or homeschooling.

Over just eight months, department officials have opened a $500 million tap for charter schools, a huge outlay for an option that often draws children from traditional public schools. They have repeatedly urged states to spend federal money for poor and at-risk students at private schools and businesses. And they have threatened penalties for public schools that offer programs to address historic inequities for Black or Hispanic students.

McMahon has described her agency moving “at lightning rocket speed,” and the department’s actions in just one week in September reflect that urgency.

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