On March 20th, Donald Trump signed an executive order that directed Linda McMahon, the Secretary of Education, to begin dismantling the Department of Education as far as the law will allow. While Congress is the only branch with the power to get rid of a department, and Republicans would need more than just their slim majority to completely destroy the Department of Education, the Trump administration’s move has put services to students at risk. 

The main goals of the order are to transfer DOE functions from the federal government to the states and to completely cut off any federal funding to programs that focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

The first goal aligns with conservative efforts to reduce federal government spending by cutting what they see as unnecessary or what can be given to the states. In that same effort, the administration wishes to cut the workforce of 4,400 employees, the smallest of any cabinet-level department, in half. Such a move would spread the DOE too thin, which could cause a backlog in financial aid requests come time for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) next fall. 

Also, presenting states with the responsibility to carry out DOE functions will cause even more issues. Most of the work the DOE does is overseeing loan programs, funding programs for disabled and impoverished students, and enforcing civil rights laws in schools. The DOE gets 224 billion dollars (2% of the federal budget in fiscal year 2024) to provide those services. Most of the funding for the schools themselves comes from the states already. The DOE helps high-poverty districts receive funding to reduce inequities between districts, with about 51% of federal funding for schools going to the third of districts with the highest need. 

If the states were the entities that had to carry out these functions, they wouldn’t be able to carry them out to the extent that the federal government can. With a significantly smaller budget, the states have a limited amount of money to work with, and without federal help from the DOE, poorer districts would suffer. Disabled student programs would suffer. Civil rights laws would be harder to enforce. 

Rather than have most students go to public school, conservatives want students to go to private or charter schools that tend to be more religiously oriented. The way they attempt to get students to attend these schools is by universal school choice, where the money that would’ve been used for a student if they received a public education (about $17,000 per year) is given to them in the form of a voucher if they go to a private school. However, the money that students receive isn’t enough to pay for all of the private school, so in reality, it’s just an option for the rich to have an easier time paying for a school that is more conservative leaning, and conservatives get to take students and money out of the public schools. Twelve states have implemented universal school choice. 

Then there’s the second goal. Trump already signed an executive order back in January that directed that any school teaching about race, gender, or identity in K-12 classrooms would lose their federal funding. The idea is to end critical thinking about these important topics in the population, similar to how other infamous twentieth century dictatorships attempted to end discussion of these topics, such as Nazi Germany and Apartheid South Africa. 

The idea of the order signed on March 20th is to cut off research funding to institutions that focus on DEI. The main targets are some of the most prestigious universities in the world. So many of this nation’s top universities receive most of their funding for research from the federal government. Now they are being given an ultimatum: submit to the Trump administration’s demands or else risk losing federal funding. 

However, top universities fought back, led by the gold standard of education, Harvard University. Harvard refused the demands of the Trump administration to share hiring data and allow outside parties to review the school’s programs. They remained steadfast when the IRS threatened to revoke their tax-exempt status. As a result, Harvard will lose $2.2 billion in federal grants and a $60 million contract, but they have sued the Trump administration for blatantly trying to scare them and other universities into allowing the government to make academic decisions at their institutions. 

While there’s a battle at the highest level of government and education for the future of our scientific and cultural centers, multiple battles are raging at lower levels of government to try and affect education in their way. Conservatives in the lower levels of government have attempted to ban books that they don’t agree with, books like George Orwell’s 1984, along with 2,452 other unique titles in 2024 alone. 

The future of education in America is now up in the air. There isn’t any ability to predict how it will look in four years when Trump’s term is up, but from how much the DOE and schools have been attacked already, it’s going to be a long four years to fight for education in America.