Why US Education Department that Trump wants to shut down is important

In a move to fulfil a campaign promise, US President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Thursday that would shut down the Education Department.

Republicans have discussed dismantling the department for decades, with Trump criticising it as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology.

According to the White House, Education Secretary Linda McMahon would be instructed to assist in closing the department while “continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programmes, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

However, it won’t be that easy, and would probably require an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979.

The primary function of the agency is financial. It oversees the federal student loan portfolio and disburses billions of dollars in government funds to schools and universities each year. From students with impairments to low-income and homeless children, the Education Department also has a significant regulatory role in student services.

Only about 14 per cent of public school budgets are funded by the federal government. It provides research funding and government financial aid to help students pay for their tuition, making colleges and universities more dependent on it.

Each of those responsibilities would have to be transferred to another agency to close the department.

For those unversed, the Trump administration has already been gutting the agency. Its workforce is being slashed in half, and there have been deep cuts to the Office for Civil Rights and the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on the nation’s academic progress.

Here are some of the department’s primary responsibilities and Trump’s stated potential approaches to them.

Finances

The Education Department manages approximately $1.5 trillion in student loan debt for over 40 million borrowers. Additionally, it manages the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which is used by colleges to distribute financial aid, and the Pell Grant, which offers assistance to students who fall below a specific income criterion.

Student loan cancellation became a signature initiative of the department’s work under former President Joe Biden’s administration. Despite the Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate Biden’s first attempt to cancel student loans, the administration changed several of its services, including Public Service Loan Forgiveness, to forgive more than 4.8 million borrowers, totalling more than $175 billion.

Numerous states run by Republicans have filed lawsuits in opposition to the loan forgiveness programmes.

Trump has denounced Biden’s debt cancellation efforts as unlawful and unfair, describing them as a “total catastrophe” that “taunted young people.” Trump has not released specific ideas, so it is unclear what his approach to student loan debt would be.

Moreover, a significant portion of the Education Department’s funding for K–12 institutions is allocated through expansive federal initiatives including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Title I for low-income schools.

These initiatives include pay for social workers and other non-teaching positions in schools, support services for students with disabilities, and reduce class sizes by adding more teaching positions.

During his campaign, Trump called for shifting those functions to the states. He has not offered details on how the agency’s core functions of sending federal money to local districts and schools would be handled.

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a sweeping proposal outlining a far-right vision for the country, offered a blueprint. It suggested sending oversight of programs for kids with disabilities and low-income children first to the Department of Health and Human Services, before eventually phasing out the funding and converting it to no-strings-attached grants to states.

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Civil rights enforcement

The Education Department carries out investigations and provides recommendations on the proper application of civil rights laws, including for students of colour and LGBTQ+ students, through its Office for Civil Rights. Additionally, the office is in charge of a sizable data gathering initiative that monitors differences in discipline, course access, and resources for students from various racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Trump has proposed a different understanding of the civil rights responsibilities of the office. Under his leadership, the department has directed the office to give antisemitic accusations first priority and has launched enquiries into schools and school sports leagues for permitting transgender athletes to play on women’s teams.

In his campaign platform, Trump said he would pursue civil rights cases to “stop schools from discriminating on the basis of race.” He has described diversity and equity policies in education as “explicit unlawful discrimination.” His administration has launched investigations of dozens of colleges for alleged racial discrimination.

Additionally, Trump has promised to deny transgender children access to Title IX protections, which impact school rules regarding the use of locker rooms, restrooms, and pronouns. Title IX was originally implemented as a women’s rights law in 1972.

Biden’s administration claimed last year that the statute prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, but a federal judge overturned those claims.

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College accreditation

Although the Education Department does not accredit colleges and universities directly, it does supervise the system by examining all accrediting organisations that have received federal recognition.

For higher education institutions to receive federal funding for student financial aid, they must be accredited.

Accreditation came under scrutiny from conservatives in 2022, when the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools questioned political interference at Florida public colleges and universities.

Trump has said he would fire “radical left accreditors” and take applications for new accreditors that would uphold standards including “defending the American tradition” and removing “Marxist” diversity administrators.

Although the education secretary has the authority to terminate its relationship with individual accrediting agencies, it is an arduous process that has rarely been pursued. Under President Barack Obama, the department took steps to cancel accreditors for a now-defunct for-profit college chain, but the Trump administration blocked the move. The group, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, was terminated by the Biden administration in 2022.

With inputs from AP