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Dismantling the Department of Education Would be Disastrous for Educational Equity
The Trump administration is threatening to dismantle the United States Department of Education (“the Department”) which would be disastrous for educational equity across the nation. All students have the right to access a quality education and the opportunity to learn in an environment that is safe, supportive, and free from discrimination. The Department of Education is the primary federal agency responsible for ensuring that all students have access to opportunities regardless of their race, gender, disability status, or family income. The Department centralizes federal education funding efforts, enforces civil rights laws, and tracks access to education for all students. If President Trump and his allies decimate this key agency, students and communities will suffer the consequences: less funding for schools, fewer educational opportunities, and less accountability for programs, policies, and administrators that discriminate against students.
In 1979 Congress created the Department of Education, officially making it a cabinet agency under President Jimmy Carter. Since then, Congress has tasked it with protecting students from discrimination based on their race (Title VI) or sex (Title IX), and ensuring that a student’s disability status does not impede their ability to access a quality education (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act). The Department also provides additional resources to schools to supplement state school funding, like funding for public schools in low-income communities, funding for students who are experiencing homelessness, and funding to support programs like music and arts at the local level. Without this funding, many schools that are already under-resourced will lose critical funding that directly benefits students, supports communities, and pays for our nation’s teachers during a time when we are already in the middle of a teacher shortage.
Without the Department, there will be no oversight focused on measuring and analyzing student academic outcomes across the country and no federal data to identify where there are gaps in access to education that must be addressed. The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), administered by the Department, collects data from public schools across the country on a variety of subjects including enrollment demographics, attendance rates, and access to advanced courses. The National Center for Education Statistics is also housed within the department, and it collects a variety of nonpartisan datasets including the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the Nation’s Report Card. NAEP data measures student academic outcomes in specific grades across various academic subjects. Without NAEP and CRDC surveys, we won’t know where there are gaps in student outcomes to be able to provide students and schools with more support.
In addition to tracking student outcomes, the Department supports innovation by offering new grant programs, providing technical assistance for school administrators, and supporting states in creating their own learning standards. The Department offers a variety of discretionary grants to schools to implement new programs and bolster programs that are doing well. Discretionary grants allow federal agencies to select which programs will receive the grant and how much the grant will be. Programs like the Education Research Information Center (ERIC) and the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) offer research to educators, school administrators, and policymakers to support best practices for serving students. Further, the Department funds programs to invest in a high-quality teaching workforce through teacher preparation and professional development. It also collects data on teacher preparation programs to track enrollment, completion, and demographics to help ensure that teachers from all backgrounds and areas are able to benefit.
In addition to tracking student outcomes, the Department also oversees programs that open the door to opportunities in higher education. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) assesses student eligibility for grants, scholarships, and government loans to pay for higher education. Dismantling the Department could therefore threaten the availability of Pell Grants which provide funding to students from families with low incomes and the federal work-study program, which pays students in higher education for work, providing employment experience while supplementing students’ income to assist with college-related costs and living expenses. Additionally, the Department houses the federal student loan program. Although Federal student loan programs can be improved and are not without critique, they have been a lifeline for students who may not otherwise be able to afford college. Unlike private student loans, federal student loans may be forgiven through a few different programs, like the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, and the interest rates offered on federal student loans are often more favorable than private ones. We should be strengthening the federal student loan program to increase educational opportunities, not destroying it and shutting out millions of students who cannot pay for higher education out of pocket.
The Department of Education houses a variety of programs that promote access to education for all students. These programs measure student outcomes, provide additional resources to schools, and open the pathway to opportunity for students. Further, the Department enforces civil rights laws to protect students from discrimination. The Trump administration and its allies want to dismantle it as part of their anti-equity agenda to mask current disparities in access to education, limit access to opportunity, tear apart enforcement of civil rights laws, and push to privatize public education with minimal oversight. Dismantling the Department would do nothing but further silence marginalized students and students in underserved communities, deepen disparities in access to education and opportunity, and betray our nation’s promise of equal opportunity.
One way we can fight to protect the Department of Education and all of the vital services it provides to students across this country is by telling your senators our students and educators deserve better than a Secretary of Education who is as poorly qualified as Linda McMahon. Demand your senators oppose McMahon’s nomination and protect students.
