by: Jasmine Sun, Valeria Garcia, Kayla Lam, Brian Chen (February 24th, 2025)
In September of 2023, now re-elected president Donald Trump made a surprising declaration on a video posted to social media.
“One thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington D.C., and sending all education and education work and needs back to the states,” said Trump.
With the election of Trump into the presidential seat once again, the Department of Education faces the danger of abolishment.
The U.S. Department of Education was established as a cabinet-level agency on May 4, 1980, following the Department of Education Organization Act. However, the department's origins trace back to 1867, when it was first created during the presidency of Andrew Johnson, who signed it into law. The department plays a crucial role in ensuring equal educational access and opportunities to all students by distributing and monitoring federal funds for programs and individuals, enforcing the civil rights of students, and overseeing research on data trends to identify major issues to fix, or best practices and techniques in education to provide for educators.
The Department of Education manages many important programs, including the distribution of student financial aid through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), providing equal access to public education for students with disabilities through special education services and early intervention programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and funds schools with high numbers of low-income students through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). These programs and services provided by the department are vital in ensuring that all students have access to educational opportunities; many of which have been shown by states that they are unwilling to or unable to take on.
Trump’s election back into the presidential office has revived the movement to abolish the department, urging Congress to terminate it. The notion of eliminating the Department of Education has existed from its first creation in 1867, becoming part of the conservative Republican goal in the 1980s when announced as part of presidential candidate Ronald Reagan’s campaign, and has become amplified within Trump’s administration and the creation of Project 2025. In his presidential campaign, Trump gave his grievances towards the department, criticizing teachings of “critical race theory"
in the education curriculum, stating that the department had been infiltrated by “radicals, zealots and Marxists.” In a collaboration between former Trump Administration officials and The Heritage Foundation, a research/educational institution that aims to build and promote conservative policies, the federal policy agenda Project 2025 solidified the elimination of the Department of Education as one of the goals of the Trump administration. As stated in Section 3 Chapter 11 of Project 2025, the first line regarding the Department of Education is: “Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.”
The Department of Education is instrumental in the promotion of STEM. The Department of Education provides the YOU Belong in STEM initiative, which aims to strengthen and increase education in the STEM field throughout the nation. The initiative has partnered and collaborated with many different programs to promote STEM education, including EXPLR to host the first 2024 National STEM Festival, and a collaboration between Women in Aerospace (WIA), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Club for the Future, and the Space Foundation to develop Space4All, a national STEM awareness campaign centered around the development of new space technology. The Department of Education also provides grants that can help support the STEM field such as providing $12.6 million to the Minority Space and Engineering Improvement Program (MSEIP) in 2020, $19 million to TRIO’s Talent Search, Upward Bound Math-Science, and Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement programs, and $1.45 million to the Center on Early STEM Learning for Young Children with Disabilities in 2018.
Should the termination of the Department of Education come to fruition, many fields and programs, including STEM, will be affected. Without the Department of Education, many programs promoting and providing access to STEM education for children, especially those from low-income families, with disabilities, or underrepresented groups, will be unable to provide the services to allow more opportunities for students entering the STEM field. Additionally, termination of the department can affect the advancement of research and education of subjects in STEM, as many projects and agencies related to STEM are funded by federal grants distributed from the Department of Education.
Trump Quote:
“Can an Executive Order Eliminate the Education Department?” NBC News, 6 Feb. 2025, www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/white-house-preparing-executive-order-abolish-department-education-rcna190205.
Dept. of Ed. Info/History:
Stengel, Richard. “A Brief History of Efforts to End the Department of Education.” TIME, 15 Feb. 2025, time.com/7225339/history-efforts-end-department-of-education.
“An Overview of the U.S. Department of Education: How Does ED Serve Students?” U.S. Department of Education, www.ed.gov/about/ed-overview/an-overview-of-the-us-department-of-education--pg-2.
Dept. of Ed. STEM Involvement:
“YOU Belong in STEM.” U.S. Department of Education, www.ed.gov/about/initiatives/you-belong-stem.
Dept. of Ed. STEM Funding (2018 - 2020):
U.S. Department of Education. STEM Investments. 2020, www.ed.gov/sites/ed/files/documents/stem/stem-investments-18-20.pdf.
Project 2025 Info:
Burke, Lindsey M. and DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. “MISSION.” Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, pp. 319–21. static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHAPTER-11.pdf.
