Dismantling the Department of Education

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 13th of February.

This is WORLD Radio, and we thank you for listening. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast. Up first, dismantling the US Department of Education.

President Donald Trump says he intends to do just that.

How will families with children in public schools be affected, if at all? WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown brings us the story.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN: Like many 9-year-olds, Sylvia Diggle loves spending time with friends, dancing, and eating french fries. But as a student at Southbury Elementary in Oswego, Ill., she has more teachers than most children her age have.

LINNEA DIGGLE: So like at Christmas, when, when we think about sending gifts to her teachers, we have to send them to like 20 people. It’s like, it’s like an army of people that serve her.

Linnea Diggle says her daughter has Mosaic Down Syndrome, which is a milder form of the chromosomal disorder.

DIGGLE: She does struggle with speech. It’s hard to understand her sometimes. So she gets a lot of help with speech at school. And that would be, that would be a big loss if that ever got threatened.

Some public school funding for students with students with disabilities comes from the U.S. Department of Education. After reports surfaced that the agency could be shut down, members of congress made speeches outside of the Department of Education headquarters in Washington. New York Rep. John Mannion:

JOHN MANNION: The parents of the children that require individualized services in a public school setting, they want answers.

Lawmakers like Mannion and mainstream media outlets have been quick to point out that disadvantaged and disabled students could stand to lose important programs. But that’s not necessarily true.

MIKE PETRILLI: But it's unlikely that they're going to get rid of these things. They would again have to convince Congress to cut funding for students with disabilities or for disadvantaged kids. That is highly unlikely to happen because it's hugely unpopular.

Mike Petrilli is the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank specializing in education policy.

PETRILLI: I think they will put out an executive order.

If that comes, it will likely follow the Senate’s confirmation of Trump’s pick for education secretary, Linda McMahon, today.

DONALD TRUMP: I believe strongly in school choice. But in addition to that, I want states to run schools. I want Linda to put herself out of a job.

The Department of Education is involved in much more than programs for students with disabilities. Roughly 66% of its $103 billion budget goes to loan programs and civil rights enforcement at the college level. $20 billion funds elementary and secondary education for low-income students and students with disabilities. But for the most part, the federal government only provides a small fraction of funding for local schools.

SHERI FEW: What most people don’t understand is that each state only receives on average about 10% of their education budget from the federal government. So while it might be large in dollars, percentage-wise it's not.

Sheri Few is president of U.S. Parents Involved in Education, an organization that has advocated for eliminating the Department of Education for over a decade. Conservatives have criticized the agency since President Jimmy Carter established it as a cabinet-level agency in 1979.

FEW: And the very next president, Ronald Reagan, said that he was gonna close the Department of Education. Unfortunately, he did not complete that task, but I have heard elected officials and candidates state this as a part of their platform for many years.

Few says there are several problems with the Department of Education, starting with the fact that it provides loans to college students.

FEW: So that's why our country is on such a huge debt situation with unpaid college loans because anybody can get them. They don't necessarily have to pay them back.

According to Few, distributing funds gives the government leverage over what’s taught in schools across all grade levels, even though it’s not technically in charge of curriculum. Like when the Biden administration introduced changes to Title IX of the Civil Rights Act and expanded the definition of sex to include gender.

FEW: That's the way the federal government has been used as a hammer to force states into complying with their education agenda.

Few is confident that getting rid of the Department of Education is possible by transferring programs to other agencies and sending funding right to the states via block grants.

FEW: It will be far more efficient than citizens sending their money to the federal government. They siphon off the majority of it for their huge bureaucracy and then send pennies back to the states.

Mike Pitrelli isn’t so sure that eliminating the bureaucracy is possible.

PETRILLI: So there’s really these two different questions, right? One is what do you do with the programs, the policy, the funding? Does that stay or does that go? And then there's a second question, which is where should all of that live?

He says an executive order alone won’t answer these questions.

PETRILLI: It has to work through Congress to make these big changes, and I think that’ll be very difficult to do.

Even if a shutdown doesn’t get the green light from Congress, it’s likely the Department of Education will experience budget and staffing cuts, and certain internal agencies could be relocated. Some of that is already happening.

On Monday, the Department of Education terminated almost $1 billion worth of grants and research contracts, some related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives. Still, Petrilli doesn’t anticipate a complete dismantling in the near future. He’s not sure that Trump does, either.

PETRILLI: I think the point is that President Trump promised on the campaign trail to get rid of the Department of Education. He has to show that he's at least trying so that they can check that box and say that they gave it their all. And in the end, I think the Department of Education will still be here four years from now.

Still, some families are concerned about the future of public school education. The Diggles aren’t worried for Sylvia’s sake.

DIGGLE: I don't think that ultimately, like, education for people with disabilities is going to be considered waste once they really, like, look at everything.

But they’re trusting the Lord either way.

DIGGLE: I kind of feel like, when you go through the airport security and they like, pull you over and check on you, you could be mad because you're innocent and they're checking on you, or you could just be glad to be part of a country that's trying to keep you safe, right? So, like, we could be upset if her services get affected, or we could just be glad that the government is trying to figure out how to do it better.

For WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

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