 "Trump guts Department of Education: How it will hurt students, parents across America")
Donald Trump is many things; he’s chaotic, unpredictable and some would say even a man of his word. As promised during his presidential campaign, the US president signed an order on Thursday (March 20) aimed at “eliminating” the Department of Education, a federal agency established in 1979 that oversees the enforcement of federal law in schools.
Surrounded by schoolchildren sitting at desks set up in the East Room of the White House, Trump smiled as held up the order after signing it at a special ceremony. Trump said the order would “begin eliminating the federal Department of Education once and for all.”
“We’re going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible. It’s doing us no good,” said Trump. “We’re going to return education back to the states where it belongs.”
The move raises big questions for the country’s millions of public schools, student-loan holders and parents.
What is the Department of Education?
The Department of Education, a Cabinet-level agency, was set up in 1979 by Jimmy Carter to oversee national education policy and administer federal assistance programmes for schools across the country.
Since its inception, the main responsibilities of the Department of Education have been to distribute federal financial aid for education, collect data on US schools, identify major education issues, enforce federal education laws prohibiting discrimination and implement congressional education legislation. It’s important to note that the Department of Education doesn’t set up curriculum for schools; that responsibility lies with the states and individual districts.
Dominique Baker, a professor of education and public policy at the University of Delaware, told Vox that the Department of Education plays an even bigger role with colleges and universities. The agency ensures that applications for federal financial aid are available to students, that the information students enter is sent to colleges, and that the money is actually disbursed.
It also, according to Baker, ensures that for-profit colleges “aren’t scamming students,” by controlling which institutions get access to federal student aid.
Currently, the department manages a budget of approximately $268 billion and employs about 4,400 staff members — which is just 0.2 per cent of the overall federal employment, making it the smallest staff of the Cabinet agencies.
Why is Trump dismantling the Department of Education?
Since his campaigning days, the US president has been calling for the elimination of the Department of Education, calling it part of a bloated federal bureaucracy. “And one other thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education,” he said in September 2023.
Notably, getting rid of the agency has been a part of Project 2025 , the blueprint for a second Trump term drafted by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation.
And while signing the order to dismantle the Department of Education, Trump said: “The US spends more money on education by far than any other country yet students rank near the bottom of the list in terms of success.”
It is not clear yet as to what actions the administration will take and which programmes might be axed. It orders Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of the department and give authority over such matters to state and local governments. It also directs her to ensure “the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely”.
However, it’s important to note here that Trump can’t dismantle the Department of Education; that would require Congressional approval. But his administration can hurt its functioning by reducing its funding and staff — on March 12, the agency announced that it is cutting its workforce by nearly 50 per cent. According to the Education Department, the agency’s workforce is being slashed from 4,133 workers to about 2,183.
Who will hurt from this cut?
Trump’s order to ‘cut’ the Department of Education will undoubtedly hurt teachers and students alike. The department’s core responsibility is prohibiting discrimination and dismantling it would mean defunding programmes that feed, educate, and protect our most vulnerable and underserved students.
Dismantling the department would leave physically challenged students at great risk. That’s because the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (Idea), which provides protections for students with disabilities, is federally enforced through the department.
Blair Wriston, senior manager for government affairs at EdTrust, an education equity non-profit, also noted that dismantling the department would hurt young children’s literacy. “We’re going to gut the agency completely that’s doing the real work here of gathering the research and evidence to help inform our practices,” he told Vox.
It also holds big concerns for those Americans who hold federal student loans. The White House has said the function of student loans would continue. However, experts note that a disruption to the department’s distribution of grants, work-study funds and loans would affect the more than 19 million college students in the United States.
Higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz told CNBC that without the Education Department, borrowers would find their applications for existing loan forgiveness programs stalled.
Derrick Johnson, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which has advocated for civil rights in education today and historically termed Trump’s move as a ‘dark day for Americans’. “Trump is not just seeking to shut down an agency, he is deliberately dismantling the basic functions of our democracy, one piece at a time.
“This is a dark day for the millions of American children who depend on federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor and rural communities with parents who voted for Trump.”
National Education Association President Becky Pringle also condemned Trump’s move, saying in a statement, “Trump and Elon Musk have aimed their wrecking ball at public schools and the futures of the 50 million students in rural, suburban, and urban communities across America, by dismantling public education to pay for tax handouts for billionaires.
“If successful, Trump’s continued actions will hurt all students by sending class sizes soaring, cutting job training programmes, making higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle class families, taking away special education services for students with disabilities, and gutting student civil rights protections,” she said.
It is left to be seen what comes next, but one can expect that Trump’s move will be challenged in the courts. As Pringle said, “Educators won’t be silent as anti-public education politicians try to steal opportunities from our students, our families, and our communities across America. Together with parents and allies, we will continue to organise, advocate, and mobilise so that all students have well-resourced schools that allow every student to grow into their full brilliance.”
With inputs from agencies
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