President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday, which directed the federal department of education to plan its own end-of-mises.
Only Congress can abolish cabinet-level institutions, and it is not clear whether Trump is voting in Congress to do so. But he has already begun to demolish the department, firing about half of his staff, blocking the respected education and research department, and has significantly narrowed the focus of the civil rights department that works to protect students from discrimination.
Trump's long history of attacking the Department of Education represents a revival of Republican talk during the Reagan era. It has a uniform Democrat of fiery opposition. But is it possible to close the department? If not, how did Trump begin using government agencies to achieve policy goals?
What does the department do?
The education department was established in 1979. Its main job is to distribute money to university students through grants and loans. It will also send federal money to K-12 schools aimed at low-income and students with disabilities to implement anti-discrimination laws.
Money for the school is being put aside by Congress and is unlikely to be affected by Trump's executive order. However, funding monitoring could be reduced and moved to other federal agencies.
These federal dollars account for only about 10% of K-12 school funding nationwide. Trump says he wants to return his power over education to the state, but the state and school districts already manage K-12 education. The federal department does not control local learning standards or reading lists.
Institutions play a major role in funding and dissemination of education, but these efforts have been significantly reduced by the Trump administration.
It also manages tests that track whether American students are learning and how they compare with their peers in other states and countries. It is unclear whether these tests will continue to be delivered. They will receive dramatic reductions in staff and the funds needed to manage them.
Still, closing the department would not have an immediate impact on how schools and universities operate. The Trump administration has discussed tapping the Treasury to pay student loans, grants and health and human services, for example, to manage student loans, grants and funds for students with disabilities.
Can the Ministry of Education actually close?
Efforts to completely eliminate the department must pass through Congress. Republican members will likely hear objections from district overseers, university presidents and other education leaders. Local Republican schools rely on federal aid from agencies, as does schools in democratic areas.
“They'll encounter opposition,” said John Valent, an education expert at the Brookings Institute. “They have the laser-thin majority and filibuster they face in the Senate.”
Even if Congressional Republicans gathered to help shut down, Dr Valant predicted that their constituents would protest given the department's role in distributing money from popular programs like Pell Grants, which pays college tuition, would provide Idea to provide support to students with disabilities.
“It's a very intense selling,” he said. “And I'm very skeptical of this administration, where we want to spend political capital.”
It is worth noting that attempts to abolish institutions are part of a larger conservative agenda to roll back the federal role in education and guide more money to direct private school vouchers and homeschooling. Trump's allies have ambitions to cut down key federal funding sources for K-12 schools known as Title I, but doing so would require action from Congress.
How much power does the department have?
Even if Trump vowed to close the department, he began using agency powers.
In January, the agency released a Denver Public Schools survey to convert girls' bathrooms into all-gender facilities. It also explores a series of meetings for students of color at ithaca, New York public schools, encouraging individuals to create a “end of DEI” webpage and report examples of “schised ideology and indoctrination” in schools.
Furthermore, Trump's executive order on “ends radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling” directs the department to develop and spread “patriotic” learning materials.
Given the small role in K-12 education, it is unclear how much of these orders will change the practices in the classroom.
The institution issues regulations on how the Civil Rights Act applies to a variety of student groups, including students with disabilities, LGBTQ students, racial minorities, and girls. One of the administration's preferred strategies is to argue that if schools allow trans students to use the toilet or play on sports teams of their choice, it is a violation of girls' rights under Title IX, a law that protects students from sexism.
Trump has shown little interest in other elements of civil rights law. He fired, for example, government lawyers investigating schools that could not provide equal access and services to children with disabilities.
Today, more than 70% of the sector's $224 billion annual budget reaches the federal student aid program, making it a frequent Republican target. Trump said he is trying to limit public sector loan exemptions, and fewer students should attend four-year universities.
The agency offers students more than $90 billion in new loans each year. It is distributed by universities and is served by the federal government through private contractors. They also provide $39 billion in Pell grants annually to low-income students, which generally do not require repayment. It provides grants to students who manage federal research programs and commit to working as a teacher in difficult subjects for staff or schools.
I had an opponent from the beginning.
Opposition to the Department of Education is related to Republicans today. However, the agency began life with fierce enemies on both sides of the aisle.
President Jimmy Carter established a division, often known simply as Ed in 1979, fulfilling his campaign promise to the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union. He did so on many objections in Congress and his own presidential transition team, including fellow Democrats.
Some stubborn liberals believed that all issues affecting children (health, cash welfare, education) should be handled by a single federal agency known at the time as the Department of Health Education and Human Services.
Still, for the next 40 years, Ed has become part of the Beltway sky, and has been popular with Democrats and many Republicans. Many of the ED Supervisor programs are sources of bipartisan communities, including funding for vocational education.
Historian Gareth Davis, who wrote about the establishment of the Ministry of Education, said the revival of conservative opposition to government agencies was an indication of “how far has the GOP moved from compassionate conservatism to the culture war in the last 20 years.”
Mike Petrilli, president of Thomas B. Fordham Institute think tanks, and former Education Bureau staff under President George W. Bush, have called for gestures to shut down the institution due to issues like record-breaking reading scores for American students released in January.
He suggested that Trump should hold a governor's summit in Washington to focus on the issue of whether screen times are harming children's academic abilities.
“If you want to solve this problem and show leadership,” he said. “You'll talk about the real crisis.”
