President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to sign an executive order that could start the process of dismantling the Department of Education — a move that would have devastating long-term effects on millions of children.
Abolishing the department, or even just kneecapping its capabilities and cutting funding, would gut resources for low-income students and children with disabilities, decimate the teacher workforce, and remove civil rights protections for students of color and transgender kids.
Shutting down the department has been on some Republicans’ wish list since it was first created in 1980, but only Congress can do so. The planned executive order would push Congress to draft legislation to close the department, according to multiplereports, as well as direct the secretary of education to make a plan to shut it down. Trump’s pick to run the department, Linda McMahon, has not yet been confirmed.
It’s unclear if an executive order could completely shut down the agency. But the beginning of Trump’s second term has revealed that the administration has no problem bucking rules, norms or laws — as evidenced, for example, by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, seizing power from Congress to meddle with the federal government’s payment system.
Shutting down the department or even stripping it of its goal of ensuring equal access to education for all children would be tantamount to “giving up on our future,” Becky Pringle, the president of the National Education Association, said in a statement last week.
Trump has already signed an order demanding the department revoke funding from schools that teach topics that Republicans don’t like, including systemic racism and gender identity. Sections of websites for the department’s civil rights arm have been removed; employees have been placed on leave for attending a seminar on diversity, equality and inclusion; and members of Congress were physically blocked from entering the building.
But an order that would more significantly chip away at the foundation of the department would have even wider-reaching effects.
“It would be an extraordinary move and totally outside our norms, and a complete violation of our laws — and what people want,” Jon Valant, a senior fellow at Brooking Institution, a public policy-focused nonprofit, told HuffPost.
The Department of Education provides funding for low-income schools through the Title I program, as well as resources for children with disabilities through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It also houses an Office of Civil Rights, which accepts complaints from students who believe their rights have been violated.
Nearly every school district in the United States receives funding from the federal government, and removing those grants would be detrimental for the whole country. But many states that voted for Trump, like Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, rely heavily on federal funding to ensure equal access to education.
“The people who will hurt the most are Trump’s base,” Will Ragland, the vice president of research for the advocacy and outreach departmentat Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, told HuffPost. “This will impact low-income white folks in the Southeastern part of the United States.”
“We’re talking about some serious cuts for teacher positions and increases in classroom sizes,” Ragland said.
In some states, Title I funds make up to 15% of the public school budget.
“The federal role [in public schools] has always been a backstop for the kids that are most in need,” Ragland said. “Education is primarily funded by property taxes. So, who is going to get the most for their schools? Rich kids.”
Trump’s flurry of executive orders have so far mirrored policy proposals laid out in Project 2025 — a massive playbook for a Republican presidency, from which Trump attempted to distance himself during the campaign. The blueprint envisions a school system funded by school vouchers, a scheme where parents are given taxpayer dollars to send their children to private schools, even religious ones.
Red state voters have routinely voted down attempts to expand voucher programs in their states. And in North Carolina and Arizona, where these programs have been growing, the state budgets are already suffering. There’s also growing evidence that the funds are going to wealthy families.
One of the other major responsibilities of the Department of Education is providing equal access to children with disabilities. Without the agency to provide funding for special education and enforcing civil rights for this group of students, it’s likely that kids with disabilities could face discrimination or ableism, or just plain fall through the cracks of the system.
“Without IDEA funding, special education programs go down the drain, fewer teachers are hired, and it would create a cascading effect,” Ragland explained. “Schools would have to move funds around and cut programs — maybe it would be band or science club or the football program.”
Significantly eroding the department would also mean dealing a blow to civil rights protections by removing an avenue for students and families to challenge school districts that violate their rights.
“Civil rights enforcement is going to look very different,” Valant said. “They would likely reposition it to focus on antisemitism and much less on LGBTQ+ and race issues and the broader pool of issues that the office has looked at in the past.”
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Any move to revoke equal access to education will likely trigger an avalanche of lawsuits, as Trump’s order to freeze federal funding and his proposal to end birthright citizenship already have.
Despite the chaos and widespread confusion over what power the Trump administration actually wields, Valant still believes that completely closing down the Department of Education is a far-fetched proposal — and one that schools should push back on.
“It’s important for schools to not obey in advance,” he said. “Let it play out, don’t overreact to every threat because those overreactions do have threats to students.”