Anna Gorman, Campus Carrier news editor
Admist a slew of executive orders issued in March, Trump has called for the dismantling of the Department of Education (DOE). According to BBC, this is a long-held goal of conservatives, but the complete shuttering of the department is unlikely due to the need for Congress’s approval on such an act. However, educators and institutions still hold concern for what this order means for students and the future of education.
According to BBC, the DOE was established in 1979 to oversee funding for public schools and administer student loans. Most predominantly, it runs programs that help low-income students. Dismantling such a department would mean giving authority over education to the states, impacting the department’s ability to carry out these responsibilities.
According to a factsheet from the White House website, the decision to dismantle the DOE comes from Trump believing it to be “wasteful,” and that the department has “spent over $3 trillion without improving student achievement.” Coupled with recent executive orders cracking down on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in institutions, this puts school programs and resources in jeopardy.
The DOE has a congressionally mandated duty to ensure education for all children, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). As part of this responsibility, the DOE must ensure that educational equity is upheld for children of all races, that students with disabilities are properly accommodated and can learn alongside their peers and that protection against sex-based discrimination – particularly against LGBTQ+ students – remains a priority in schools across the country. Dismantling the DOE undermines its ability to properly do this. Without this oversight, school districts won’t be held accountable for unjustified racial and disability discrimination. Policies based on data collected by the department – which have helped reduce discriminatory discipline practices and promote equity for marginalized students – are now at risk.
In the wake of this order, the DOE also terminated all staff in seven of its Office of Civil Rights’ (OCR) 12 regional offices, according to the ACLU, leaving millions of students without protections against discrimination based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, disability and age. This also suppressed students’ ability to seek justice when their rights are violated, such as through targeting of students of color and students with disabilities, inequitable access to advanced coursework and discrimination against students who do not speak English.
For the most part, much of the commentary from the Trump administration and conservative policymakers revolves around the department’s role in kindergarten through grade 12. However, many institutions of higher education are funded by the government and government-issued grants, sparking concern and fear in certain colleges and universities.
According to Inside Higher Ed, financial aid, grants and loans for students in need are at risk for being cut. The Trump administration has yet to say what would happen to these federal financial aid programs if the department goes away. Currently, some conservative plans mention moving the department’s Office of Federal Aid to the Department of the Treasury, though whether the Treasury has the capacity to do this is still unknown.
In 2024, Congress allocated $3.3 billion toward higher education, including a $400 million fund to directly support historically Black colleges and universities and a $229 million grant program for Hispanic-service institutions, according to Inside Higher Ed. The DOE also spends $2.14 billion on Federal Work-Study and supplemental grants to support low-income students.
While this money greatly impacts individual students and programs, some institutions rely on federal support to remain open and operational. For example, Gallaudet University, a school for the deaf in Washington, D.C., was created by Congress and relies on over $150 million annually from the DOE to function. Nixing the DOE puts institutions like this in uncertainty.
The Trump administration’s threat to freeze all federal grants and loans in February, which was blocked by a judge and has since been rescinded, highlighted the impact a severe loss in funding would cause for institutions of higher education. The action would have more specifically targeted grant programs related to DEI in some aspect and would have threatened to shut down these programs.
Though still a threat, the Trump administration hasn’t provided much information about how the services provided by the DOE will be shifted should the department be fully shuttered. A large question being asked, particularly in Georgia, is the future of special education service delivery, which involves planning and providing tailored educational services to students with disabilities such as individualized education programs (IEPs). According to WABE, the National Public Radio (NPR) member station for the Atlanta area, many students benefit from federal funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the McKinney-Vento Act, which helps homeless students access educational resources and health services. Addressing these education inequities was part of the reason why former Georgia governor and President Jimmy Carter pushed to establish the DOE in the first place.
On top of a teacher shortage, the impacts to federal support would further burden teachers, with less funding jeopardizing their ability to help their students, according to WABE.
College and university education students across the U.S. are also fearful of the impacts, according to Boston University’s student newspaper, The Daily Free Press. Many public schools in Boston are Title I funded schools, meaning they are directly funded by the DOE, and without that funding will lose the ability to provide students with meals.
Despite saying little about individual state curriculums, the DOE’s closure still impacts classrooms and the students within. A notable concern is how dissolving federal funding will destabilize low-income education systems, such as those in Alabama and Arkansas. The students in these systems require federal aid to pursue higher education, and the systems themselves require federal funding to operate.
With the fate of the DOE still up in the air, Berry administration and leadership remains adamant in protecting its grants and programs and the students that need them, according to a campus update sent in January. Though a formal statement has yet to be made, Berry remains committed to its Good Neighbor culture in these times of uncertainty.