Trump’s Attack on Department of Education

Amid Department of Education layoffs and Trump’s plan to dismantle the federal agency, students and educators wonder how these departmental changes could impact American schools.

During an Oval office meeting with the Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, Trump said it is his plan to “move education into the states.” Throughout his campaign he has argued that the country’s low education rating is not deserving of the department’s 268 billion dollar budget, once accusing the agency of “indoctrinating young people with inappropriate racial, sexual and political material.”

These statements came soon before roughly 50% of the DOE workforce was laid off, leaving roughly 2,183 employees left to pick up the slack.

Founded in 1979, the DOE is responsible for overseeing student loan programs, funding programs to support special needs students and students in poverty and enforcing civil rights laws to prevent race or sex based discrimination. Contrary to popular belief, the DOE doesn’t set the curricula in US schools because that is the responsibility of the states and local districts.

Without enough hands to help keep up with the workload, these programs will have a harder time keeping up with schools’ needs.

In a news release from the DOE, the department said they “will continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview,” including Pell grants and student loans.

According to a preliminary tally of the cuts from USA Today, the Federal Student Aid Office and the Office for Civil Rights were most affected by the reduction in staff.

The US Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, has stressed that plans to downsize the DOE will not affect financial aid money. However, key staff members lost to the layoffs could have a butterfly effect on the speed and quality of student funding down the line.

For now, FAFSA and student loans are also protected from government dismantling, though similar concerns arise over the lack of employees now expected to take on the task of distributing student aid.

Sabrina Calazans, executive director of the Student Debt Crisis Center, said these cuts could make applying for and paying back student loans more complicated for students.

“Americans with student debt have already been impacted by the recent removal of income-driven repayment plans from the studentaid.gov website; this will only make things worse,” Calazans said.

Special education accommodations in schools are also mandated and protected by the law, but with the lack of employees, investigations into complaints under this act could become delayed.

Concerned parents of children with special needs took to online chat groups to air their grievances.

Stacy Staggs, a mother of two children with advanced disabilities, said she is concerned about how the DOE workforce reduction could impact resources for students with disabilities.

Though Trump can’t officially abolish the DOE without help from Congress, reorganizations within the agency could still have a large impact on the day-to-day operations of the department, which in turn could have a large impact on US students.