“Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world.” This quote from Nelson Mandela perfectly encompasses some of the ideals of education within our country. For 46 years, the Department of Education (DOE) has been in place to mandate, fund, and oversee access to education. However, during Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, he made the hefty promise that once he took office, he would get rid of the Department of Education. He seems committed to following through with this pledge. With the removal of such a seemingly essential government entity, we must begin to focus on what this means for our schools and students. So, you want to dismantle the Department of Education? Let’s look at what exactly that means.
In its own words, the Department of Education’s main goal is to “promote student achievement and equal access.” Many wonder what exactly this department does. The DOE is tasked with overseeing funding for public schools, administering student loans, and running programs that help low-income students.
If this department is doing such important things, then why would Trump want to get rid of it? Trump and some of his allies have accused the DOE of “indoctrinating young people with inappropriate racial, sexual, and political material.” This claim assumes that the power to decide curricula is left to this department, which is simply not the case. The power to set curricula is within the power of the states, the same place that
Trump means to turn over educational decision-making when the department is abolished.
One of the main jobs of the DOE is to provide loans and grants that help students attend university. Due to the increasing cost of higher education, access to student financial aid is often vital to a young person’s ability to attend college. This department also funds programs that support students with disabilities and those living in poverty, along with having provisions in place that prevent race and sex discrimination within public schools.
Federal funding that would typically go to the DOE would instead most likely be directed toward school choice programs that fund private schools, while programs that help some of the most vulnerable students in America would be gutted.
As previously stated, abolishing the Department of Education will turn power over to the states. But most people don’t know what this truly means, and they are not alone. Many state officials and lawmakers have said they are wildly unprepared for this to happen. Most of the confusion surrounds who would take over the funding for schools with extra needs, as well as schools with large populations of impoverished and disabled students. This abolishment would also do away with Title I funding, which provides for some of the poorest and most academically disadvantaged students.
Trump has done nothing to clear up the confusion among the states, leaving many state officials and lawmakers scrambling for plans and information regarding the power the states will now have. What we do know is that the effect this will have on students could be detrimental.
We already know that getting rid of the Department of Education will have catastrophic consequences for students who rely on educational aid and support. Along with this, civil protections for students based on race, gender, and disability would be chronically underfunded. This act would have some of the most negative effects on the nation’s most vulnerable students, with National Education Association President Becky Pringle saying, “Trump’s power grab would steal resources for our most vulnerable students, explode class sizes, cut job training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle-class families, take away special education services for students with disabilities, and gut student civil rights protections.”
While the hefty task of completely dismantling the Department of Education would be difficult and require the support of Congress, doing things such as gutting federal funding for “non-essential” programs without technically violating the department’s statute is a way Trump could get around the struggle of obtaining a majority in Congress.
Will it be worth it? When public education is gutted of its funding and instead money is directed toward already wealthy private schools, will that help anyone? Is it worth stripping disabled students of accessibility and equal education, poor students of the same chance to succeed as others, and students of color, gay, transgender, and female students of their ability to feel safe in their schools? All of this is in the name of getting rid of “woke propaganda,” something that has in no way been proven in our schools and seems to only consist of teaching students about equality and tolerance. Will it be worth it?
And what do we do with America’s most vulnerable children, the ones who are severely and profoundly disabled? These students are protected by the Department of Education, and schools can provide them with the support they need because of funding granted by the DOE. When there is no protection for these students, how will schools afford to accommodate their needs? Where will they go, given that private schools are not required to accept students with needs that go above and beyond what private schools are willing and able to provide and fund?
The good news is that this effort is still unlikely to be successful. For Trump to abolish the DOE, he would need a 60/100 majority in the Senate. There are currently 53 Republicans in the Senate, and it is unlikely that Democrats would vote for his efforts. This hope does not take away from how upsetting it is that the president of our country would set aside the needs of the most vulnerable students in America just to direct more funding toward already overfunded private schools and to halt any opposing ideas from being taught. If our president can abolish a staple of our nation, such as the DOE, then what else can he do? Which department will he go after next, and which marginalized group will he strip funding from now?
Check Out These Sources:
Alcindor, Yamiche, and Alexandra Marquez. “White House Preparing Executive Order to Abolish the Department of Education.” NBC News, Feb. 4, 2025, www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/white-house-preparing-executive-order-abolish-department-education-rcna190205.
Edelman, Adam, and Tyler Kingkade. “We’re Not Prepared: States Brace for Trump’s Plans to Dismantle the Education Department.” NBC News, Feb. 27, 2025, www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/states-brace-trump-plan-dismantle-education-department-rcna192953.
Faguy, Ana. “Trump’s Pledge to Axe the Department of Education Explained.” BBC, Nov. 15, 2024, www.bbc.com/news/articles/c79zxzj90nno.
Inskeep, Steve, and Taylor Haney. “What Trump’s Pledge to Close Dept. of Education Means for Students, GOP-Led States.” NPR, Nov. 14, 2024, www.npr.org/2024/11/14/nx-s1-5181966/a-look-at-the-potential-impact-of-shutting-down-the-department-of-education.
Walker, Tim. “How Dismantling the Department of Education Would Harm Students.” NEA, 2025, www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/how-dismantling-department-education-would-harm-students.
“What It Would Mean to Eliminate the Education Department.” NPR, Feb. 21, 2025, www.npr.org/2025/02/21/nx-s1-5301061/what-it-would-mean-to-eliminate-the-education-department.
