Before the process of shutting it down, he will put Linda McHanon as the education secretary. This woman is a former pro-wrestling and she used to be at the head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first presidency. “She will fight tirelessly to expand universal school choice across the U.S.”, said Trump. She will be at the head of the agency that Trump wants to abolish.
The Department of Education mostly disperses federal loans to school programs, which help mostly disabled and underprivileged students. About $114 billion out of $229 billion U.S. dollars that goes through this department goes to the Federal Direct Student Loan Program.
Title 1, is the main source of financing schools across the US by the federal government. It helps low-income students and provides funds mainly to students who live in concentrated poverty. In 2024, Congress assigned $18,4 billion U.S. dollars to this program.
This department also has an office for Civil Rights which ensures that students are not subjected to discrimination about age, race, national origin, sex, and disability.
Trump wants the states to control schools instead of the federal government. ” We want to move the schools back to the states,” he said in an interview. The fight about whether to shut it down mostly rests on how involved the federal government should be in managing education.
“For Republicans, the department is an example of federal overreach and unneeded bureaucracy,” said Rich Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. In 2024, 64% of Republicans have a bad opinion of this department.
Would the students be impacted by this decision?
It depends on Congress agreeing to cut the funding for the programs too. A portion of funding comes from states, education agencies, and local programs. For some states, it wouldn’t change anything, but for others, it could generate more inequalities. This might result in less protection for poor and special-needs kids.
Trump would be able to dismantle the Department of Education, but he needs the approval of Congress to take it off. It would be a long project, but eventually it could happen.
