Can Trump eliminate the Department of Education?

2 months ago 3
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President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education “very early” in his second term, but critics fear the plan would hurt public schools."I'm going to close the Department of Education and move education back to the states," Trump said during his campaign. It’s easier said than done. Since former President Jimmy Carter created the cabinet-level agency in 1979, several Republicans, from former President Ronald Reagan to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have threatened to get rid of it. Experts say, even though the GOP will soon have unified control in Congress, Trump will have a hard time getting the 60 Senate votes needed to completely abolish the agency. “The department's not going to be abolished. It's just a matter of math. Now, that said, there's a question of how you can reorganize or downsize the department,” said Rick Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. Hess believes some of the Department of Education’s core responsibilities could be better managed by other federal agencies. He said civil rights enforcement could be moved to the Department of Justice and the Treasury Department could oversee the federal student loan portfolio.The president-elect's transition team didn’t respond when asked about their specific implementation plans, but during Trump's first term, his administration proposed merging the Department of Education with the Labor Department.“This would help create alignment throughout the education-to-career pipeline, while also creating coherence within the workforce development and higher education worlds,” the proposal furthered. Another big question is what will happen to the funding streams the Department of Education currently overseas, including programs that support low-income schools and students with disabilities. “Most schools get an average of about 10% of their money that comes from the federal government, so it's a relatively small slice in the bigger picture,” said Dr. Marguerite Roza, the director of Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab. "I don't think that money is going to go away. It's popular on both sides of the aisle, and it would have a big impact if districts tried to operate without it." Hess said those programs could be converted to block grants and run at the state level with fewer regulations. “It's not clear to me that the rules they are writing are actually all that helpful, and I'd rather see less of that money spent on bureaucratic salaries and more of that money spent on K-12 and higher education,” Hess said. Others fear that, with fewer guardrails, public dollars could be diverted to private schools. "The real goal here that they have is to privatize public education," said Kim Anderson, the executive director of the National Education Association, a union that represents millions of educators across the county. "The way in which that becomes easier is if the Department of Education just simply gives money to the states and says, 'Do with it what you will.'"Anderson is also concerned that legal protections for the most vulnerable students could be rolled back. "The reason why there's a federal role in education is because states were creating disparate systems of education, because opportunities were disparate for students based on race and geography and income, and we don't want that to happen," Anderson said.

WASHINGTON —

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education “very early” in his second term, but critics fear the plan would hurt public schools.

"I'm going to close the Department of Education and move education back to the states," Trump said during his campaign.

It’s easier said than done.

Since former President Jimmy Carter created the cabinet-level agency in 1979, several Republicans, from former President Ronald Reagan to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have threatened to get rid of it.

Experts say, even though the GOP will soon have unified control in Congress, Trump will have a hard time getting the 60 Senate votes needed to completely abolish the agency.

“The department's not going to be abolished. It's just a matter of math. Now, that said, there's a question of how you can reorganize or downsize the department,” said Rick Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

Hess believes some of the Department of Education’s core responsibilities could be better managed by other federal agencies. He said civil rights enforcement could be moved to the Department of Justice and the Treasury Department could oversee the federal student loan portfolio.

The president-elect's transition team didn’t respond when asked about their specific implementation plans, but during Trump's first term, his administration proposed merging the Department of Education with the Labor Department.

“This would help create alignment throughout the education-to-career pipeline, while also creating coherence within the workforce development and higher education worlds,” the proposal furthered.

Another big question is what will happen to the funding streams the Department of Education currently overseas, including programs that support low-income schools and students with disabilities.

“Most schools get an average of about 10% of their money that comes from the federal government, so it's a relatively small slice in the bigger picture,” said Dr. Marguerite Roza, the director of Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab. "I don't think that money is going to go away. It's popular on both sides of the aisle, and it would have a big impact if districts tried to operate without it."

Hess said those programs could be converted to block grants and run at the state level with fewer regulations.

“It's not clear to me that the rules they are writing are actually all that helpful, and I'd rather see less of that money spent on bureaucratic salaries and more of that money spent on K-12 and higher education,” Hess said.

Others fear that, with fewer guardrails, public dollars could be diverted to private schools.

"The real goal here that they have is to privatize public education," said Kim Anderson, the executive director of the National Education Association, a union that represents millions of educators across the county. "The way in which that becomes easier is if the Department of Education just simply gives money to the states and says, 'Do with it what you will.'"

    Anderson is also concerned that legal protections for the most vulnerable students could be rolled back.

    "The reason why there's a federal role in education is because states were creating disparate systems of education, because opportunities were disparate for students based on race and geography and income, and we don't want that to happen," Anderson said.

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