Experts Reveal The ‘Real Damage’ Trump’s DOE Cuts Will Do To Our Schools

As kids hopped off buses across the nation Thursday afternoon, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, which was established in 1979. Before signing, he turned to children sitting at school desks on either side of the podium asking, “Should I do this?”

“Sounds strange … but everyone knows it’s right,” Trump said. “We have to get our children educated. We are not doing well with the world of education in this country, and haven’t in a long time,” adding that students in public elementary and middle schools score “worse in reading today than when the department opened, by a lot.”

Trump is fulfilling a campaign promise to eliminate the department. In February, he called the Department of Education a “big con job.” The department represents 4% of the U.S. budget, spending $268 billion in 2024.

Completely eliminating the department will require Congress’ approval. But Trump has reduced the department’s workforce by half already, which could make it impossible to carry out its basic functions anyway. “We’ve cut the number of bureaucrats in half,” he said at the signing.

“This executive order isn’t the real danger. The real danger is what has already been happening,” said Arielle Fodor, better known as Mrs. Frazzled, an education advocate and former teacher with 2 million followers across social media. “The order itself is political theater. It’s designed to signal to Trump’s base that he’s taking action … frankly, it’s designed to freak those of us out who care about public education and its future.”

Instead, she says the “real damage” will come from budget and program cuts.

The Department of Education is in charge of nine program offices, including:

• Education sciences “produces rigorous evidence” to ground education policy and practice.
• English language acquisition helps “linguistically and culturally diverse students,” including immigrants, learn English.
• Elementary and secondary education supports public and private schools, including programs for “the nation’s neediest children.”
• Innovation and improvement tests innovations including teacher quality programs and those that “expand parental choice of schools.”
• Postsecondary education funds programs to increase postsecondary education access — think colleges, universities and trade schools.
• Drug and violence prevention programs help with safety and student health programs, including character and civic education.
• Special education funding develops the “full potential of children with disabilities” and supports research.
• Federal student aid “provides tens of billions of dollars annually in federal financial aid to millions of students” pursuing college and postsecondary training.
• Vocational and adult education assists adults in earning high school diplomas.

Lexi Barrett, a former Department of Education Chief of Staff under the Biden administration, said that in spite of these changes, education is and always has been a local issue. But one aspect people should be concerned about is that the Department of Education ensures state compliance. “I worry about students not getting that access to education,” she said. She explained that the department is made of career-long education experts who genuinely come to work each day with an “intense level of commitment and mission to serving students and making sure they get what they need.”

Barrett thinks eliminating the Department of Education is “incredibly unpopular,” and doesn’t see why Congress would pass a full elimination.

The topic has the country’s parents split. According to a survey released Thursday from Outschool of 1,065 parents, 48% disapprove of eliminating the department. Another poll by New America shows just 55% support a full dismantling, and 17% aren’t sure. Yet, in Trump’s comments while signing the order, he said, “It’s amazing how popular it is.”

The Department of Education website states 92% of funding comes from non-federal sources. The federal contribution of 8% includes multiple departments, including the Department of Agriculture’s school lunch program. “Despite breathtaking failures, the department’s discretionary budget has exploded by 600%,” Trump said. “Pell grants, Title I, funding resources for children with disabilities and special needs, will be preserved — fully preserved … they’re going to be in full, and redistributed to various other agencies.” He added students will perform better with “probably half” the funding.

Jody Googins, a former K-12 teacher of 19 years and current professor of education at Xavier University, told HuffPost, “There are just such gigantic question marks on what is going to happen with these funds.”

The special education community became concerned when new Education Secretary Linda McMahon, best known for co-founding World Wrestling Entertainment, struggled to identify what IDEA stood for on television — the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. McMahon suggested offloading special education to the Department of Health and Human Services, under Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

Sarah Burk is a former district director of special education, and current leader at a company establishing alternative schools across six states. She shares that ensuring a free appropriate public education (FAPE) is the component of special education most at risk of variation across state lines. “That can mean supplying a certified intervention specialist to provide specially designed instruction … or the location of services — there may not be a resource room,” she said. “We are thinking about the elements of inclusion, and equitable access, including accommodations, modifications, and related services, along with assistive technology.”

But, she shares, actual laws, not the existence of this department, are what guarantee this access. “It doesn’t mean their kiddos aren’t going to get their specially designed instruction if they’re on an IEP [individualized education plan].”

Googins and Fodor both shared that it’s a myth that the federal government directly controls curriculum. Fodor said Trump uses federal funding “as a weapon” to take more control, though, such as in his “Ending Radical Indoctrination” executive order. “He is threatening to defund schools that teach ‘discriminatory equity ideology,’” she said.

“It’s an illegal attempt to control what is or isn’t taught in school,” she added. However, critics of Trump’s anti-woke agenda say reports continue to conclude the “indoctrination” just isn’t happening in schools like he thinks it is.

“Getting rid of or dramatically defunding the Department of Education will change what’s taught in schools, but that’s because it will mean reducing funding for recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers, increasing school and program closures in rural communities, limiting access for supports and services for students with disabilities,” said Jasmine Bolton, policy director at Partnership for the Future of Learning and former senior counsel in the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education. “This is absolutely the last thing students need as they continue to rebound from the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The American Civil Liberties Union shared in a statement on March 14 that the DOE cuts leave millions of students without “crucial protections” against discrimination in education based on age, disability, ancestry sex, gender, national origin, race and color. They are concerned students won’t have equal access to advanced coursework, be denied accommodations for disabilities, or be able to contest unfair discipline-based targeting. They issued a call to Congress to “act immediately to restore the federal government’s role in enforcing civil rights.”

“[Title I funds] fill in those gaps where needed. For example — spending per pupil,” Googins said. “Every student is different, and their individual needs are different.” In Pittsburgh, Bellevue Elementary school principal Dr. Michael Amick said, “I worry about a lot of things … there is a lot of work done through the Department of Education to support equitable outcomes. This includes access to interventions and supports that can level the playing field for our most at-risk students.”

Students who are in communities already suffering from economic despair might see bigger class sizes, fewer specialists, or a “dramatic impact” on the number of teachers that can be employed, resulting in fewer services for students, Barrett says.

Americans might shoulder the burden of funding changes, as schools seek to make up for the loss, Fodor predicts. “This will hit middle- and working-class homeowners the hardest.”

Googins recommends the community stay involved and aware, even though it’s an already complicated issue. She calls for “clarity” from the federal government about Title I funding, and funds that support students with disabilities. “It’s going to be really difficult to parse through it, to be honest,” she said. In Ohio, she shares an instance of only 15% of the community voting on a board member that “changes an entire school district,” recommending vigilance and involvement instead on this issue. “Things happen that have consequences when you stop paying attention.”

“If Congress actually moves a bill to eliminate the ED, proposes a budget reconciliation that would reallocate its funding, puts a bill up about moving to block grants, or tries to move enforcement of IDEA out from under ED, that’s when we should panic,” Fodor said. “Right now, any bills have only been introduced and have not gotten out of committee. So we still have time to fight.”