Donald Trump transition news: What eliminating the Department of Education could mean for students and schools

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has proposed a plan to eliminate the Department of Education to “send all educational work and needs back to the states,” according to his Agenda47 policy platform.

Education experts say the end of the Department of Education could leave billions in funds, scholarships, grants and more at stake for the millions of K-12 and college-level students who attend schools in the United States.

Critics of the department argue that federal spending on education has exploded since its inception – costing $23 billion to date for fiscal year 2025, or about 4% of government spending so far – but the measures Student achievement, such as reading and math scores, has fallen. recent years.

What does the Ministry of National Education do?

The DOE was created as a Cabinet-level agency in 1979 under then-President Jimmy Carter, but was originally created in the late 1800s to collect data on what works effectively in education for policy makers and educators.

The education agency has facilitated the expansion of federal support for schooling over the years. After World War II, the GI Bill expanded educational assistance for veterans. After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into space, the agency helped develop science, mathematics, and foreign language education in primary and secondary schools and supported vocational and technical training.

In the 1960s and 1970s, efforts to combat poverty and discrimination shaped the Department of Education's mission to ensure equal access to education across the country. This led to the creation of Title I funding to reduce academic achievement gaps between low-income and rural students and low-income schools.

The DOE also holds schools accountable for enforcing nondiscrimination laws like Title IX based on sex, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act based on disability, and Title VI based on the race.

Federal student aid, which provides more than $120 billion annually in grants, work-study funds and low-interest loans to approximately 13 million students, is also supported by the department of Education.

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The Department also holds schools accountable under the Every Student Succeeds Act, which requires each state to provide data on subject performance, graduation rates, suspensions, absenteeism, teacher qualifications, etc.

The department states on its website that it does not develop academic programs, set enrollment and graduation requirements, or establish or accredit schools or universities.

However, it has played a major role in school funding for decades, especially as state investments in elementary and secondary schools deteriorated during the 2008 Great Recession.

According to the Education Law Center, American students lost nearly $600 billion due to states' disinvestment in their public schools in the decade following the Great Recession.

The complicated nature of a department closure includes administering billions in DOE funds directly to individual states, according to higher education expert Clare McCann. McCann said distributing the money is something qualified DOE employees would be equipped to do.

“There is a reason why the Department of Education was created and that was to have this kind of internal expertise and policy experience in these areas. [education] ” McCann told ABC News, adding: “The civil servants who work at the Department of Education are true experts in the field.

Neal McCluskey, an education analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, says dismantling the department could be as simple as giving the funding to states, while allowing them to decide how it is administered.

“What I've seen most often, and I've written about myself, is that you could, for example, take all the money from K-12, Title One, IDEA [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act] etc. — You will of course have to change the law, but one of the things you could do is grant it wholesale; You would say, 'We're going to fund these things, but we're going to give it to the state so they can decide how this is administered,'” he told ABC News.

Some education experts like Wendy A. Paterson, professor and dean of the School of Education at State University at Buffalo, told ABC News in an interview that she “didn't see how serving families and children under the auspices of the offices of the Ministry of Education could continue” without a federal ministry.

Paterson said if the funding itself was changed, it would likely worsen the national teacher shortage and impact targeted communities in which the Department of Education specializes, including low-income, disabled or disabled students. looking for FAFSA.

“There is an intimate relationship between our schools and the society that we create and pass on to our children, and that is so important,” Paterson said. “So if we don't have a federal organization that recognizes the importance of schools and post-secondary education and the right of all children to have access to education, what are we saying about democracy? “

Why does Trump want to get rid of the Department of Education?

In a 2023 statement about his plans for schools, Donald Trump said that “one thing I will do very early in the administration is to close the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and fire all of the work and educational needs in Washington. the States. »

“We want them to be in charge of raising our children because they will do a much better job,” Trump said.

The Trump Agenda47 does not specify what impact dismantling the department would have on programs managed by the Department of Education.

However, on the campaign trail, in interviews with Elon Musk and on “Fox & Friends,” Trump repeatedly said he wanted to close the agency and choose an Education Department official instead for his cabinet, thereby aligning with Trump's goals of dismantling “government bureaucracy.” ” and restructure government agencies for greater efficiency.

Several prominent conservative and Republican figures have also proposed department closures over the years, including Ronald Reagan, Vivek Ramaswamy and lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

McCluskey said in a recent essay that the department is “unconstitutional,” arguing that it exercises too much power over schools above local and state entities.

House Education and the Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx also argued that creating such a department is not a constitutional requirement: “I don't find the word education in there. [the Constitution] as one of the duties and responsibilities of Congress or the federal government,” Rep. Foxx, R-North Carolina, told ABC News.

Is it possible to eliminate it?

While this is possible in theory, education policy experts who spoke with ABC News suggest it would be an extremely chaotic — and unrealistic — task on Jan. 20, 2025, Inauguration Day.

The bold move won't happen immediately, but McCluskey told ABC News it could be accomplished through Congress.

“The Department of Education was created by legislation,” McCluskey told ABC News. “Legislation goes through Congress. If you want to dismantle the Department of Education, you have to do it through legislation,” McCluskey added.

At this point, without congressional approval, McCluskey said the president-elect's campaign message has no value.

“I think that what is said during campaigns and what is actually done must often be two different things because during campaigns politicians say a lot of things that make it seem easy to do what “They want to do,” McCluskey said. said.

“No president can fire everyone in the Department of Education and put the management of these programs in the hands of one person,” he added.

Trump's education policy

Trump, however, lists several federal policies he hopes to implement in the nation's schools. This includes asking a future Department of Education to end programs that it says “promote the concept of sexual and gender transition, at any age,” as well as punishing teachers or schools that do so. make.

He hopes to create a certification body to certify teachers “who adhere to patriotic values ​​and support the American way of life,” without specifying further what that entails.

It would also prevent Title IX from allowing transgender women to compete in sports. He said he would create funding preferences and favorable treatment for states and school districts that would abolish teacher tenure and adopt merit pay for K-12 educators and allow parents to vote for directors.

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