The President of the United States does not have the power to unilaterally abolish the federal Department of Education or any other department – the Constitution gives Congress and only Congress that power. But as Donald Trump sat down in front of the national press on March 20, he signed an Executive Order attempting to do it anyway.
“We’re going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible,” Trump said before signing the EO to begin the process.
Core functions of the department are intended to be preserved by being transferred to different agencies or to state governments. But this is likely to end up being tied up in courts as the Constitution of the United States says quite clearly at the end of Article One, Section Eight, that Congress alone has the power “To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”
Trump is the leader of the party that has majorities in both chambers of Congress – albeit tiny ones – but Trump has not tried to use Congress to accomplish his goals of reducing the size of the federal government. Trump acknowledged that Congress will ultimately need to dissolve the agency, but that process is yet to begin. Republican members of Congress have largely stopped doing in person town halls as they keep devolving into shouting matches from angry constituents – many of whom claim that they are fellow conservatives – but the GOP has largely dismissed them as being paid actors.
Ann Arbor Family reached out repeatedly to the Washtenaw County Republican Party for comment on this story. They never responded.
What would losing the federal education department mean?
America’s public education system is highly decentralized, the modern federal Department of Education did not even exist until the Carter Administration. Most local curricula are organized by locally elected school boards and superintendent decisions.
“We are going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states,” the President said recently, keeping in line with his longstanding rhetoric and Project 2025.
The federal education department does not dictate curriculum to school districts, but rather supports districts through granting extra funding for building improvements or to provide special education funding. It also works to prevent schoolroom discrimination on the basis of race, gender, gender ideology or the physical abuse of students – something that used to be the norm, especially in the south, when states had much more education policy control.
The late President Carter signed a Congressionally passed bill into law to enhance educational opportunities and very specifically to prevent a reversion to Jim Crow-style discrimination in education. It also helps provide college grants and tuition as part of an attempt to keep higher education attainable.
The superintendent of Ann Arbor Public Schools, Jazz Parks, sent this statement to Ann Arbor Family: “I am concerned that calling for the closure of the Department of Education will put critical education funding at risk that our most vulnerable students depend on, including students from low-income families and students with disabilities. The Ann Arbor Public Schools will be watching closely to see what the impact will be locally and what steps the State of Michigan will take in response to federal cuts to education programs and funding.”
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The Democratic-led Michigan state government said in a press release that the administration should focus on improving the existing system rather than eliminating it.
“As educators, we must continue to keep our eyes on our most important goal — educating and supporting our children,” Michigan State Superintendent Dr. Michael F. Rice said in a press release. “At the end of the day, I do not believe the U.S. Department of Education will be shuttered. Congress and the American people will not allow it. What’s more concerning is the president’s effort to cut federal funds and the effect on students with disabilities, poor children, children experiencing homelessness, English learners and other children who require more funding to local school districts to educate and support.”
Parents with children in grade school concerned about how this will affect their children’s ability to learn should keep in touch with their superintendent and school boards. A Saline Area Schools spokesperson declined comment.
“This move undermines the vital support systems that ensure equitable access to quality education for all children,” Terrence Martin, president of the Michigan chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, said in the same press release. “Union members, who play a critical role in educating and advocating students, will face increased challenges in fighting for adequate resources for classrooms. Without federal oversight, we risk widening the gap in educational opportunities, particularly for our most vulnerable populations. It is imperative that we stand together to protect the future of education and uphold the rights of both students and educators.”
The Trump Administration is also systemically deleting anything it deems “woke” or tied to “gender ideology”, or to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Entire databases of information on everything from climate change data to vaccines have been scrubbed from federal websites. Sometimes it has drawn backlash – such as when the Defense Department eliminated any mention of the bomber that launched the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima during World War Two, because the plane was named the “Enola Gay” and they also temporarily removed Jackie Robinson’s history of military service from the Defense Department’s website. As the New Yorker recently put it, entire communities of “librarians and guerilla archivists” exist now to try and save information that the current administration would rather not be accessible.
The new Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, recently attempted to abruptly lay off 43% of federal Department of Education employees. That layoff effort is also being challenged in court.
The concern of parents with kids in college
A lot is in the air right now, and the administration is yet to release details, as Eastern Michigan University President James Smith pointed out in a statement. He stressed that there are no indications that the action will affect federal student aid as of yet.
“This is an important issue for EMU students because 82% of EMU undergraduate students and/or their parents receive loans and/or grants from the federal government through direct student loans, Pell Grants, Work Study, parent PLUS loans, and other initiatives,” said Smith. “Moreover, 66% of EMU graduate students receive loans and/or grants from the federal government. Student loans and grants enable EMU students to pursue their degrees, equipping them with the skills needed to contribute to our nation’s economy. After graduating from EMU, they launch new businesses and excel in careers such as cybersecurity, teaching, aviation, nursing, engineering, communications, science, law enforcement, and many other essential fields.”
EMU Students can contact Service EMU to find updates.
The University of Michigan has also been affected by funding changes. The administration has had to announce that this has meant that there will be a slowdown in hiring, penny pinching on non-essential expenditures, and that while current capital expenditures on new buildings and infrastructure will be continued, new projects “will continue to be reviewed.”
The U of M responded to an interview request by deferring to its institutional neutrality policy, which doesn’t allow it to comment on political matters.
Following the Project 2025 vision
Trump took a lot of time denying any affiliation with Project 2025 in last year’s election, despite the fact that this blueprint for how a Republican administration should behave after the Biden administration was written largely from alumni from his first administration. Now that Trump is back in power, a lot of the actions that the administration is taking comes more or less from that playbook.
Project 2025 called for a dramatic downsizing of the federal governments’ involvement in the educational system. It did not call for the elimination of all federal higher education loans, just most of them.
Student loans have become an increasingly partisan issue as more and more career paths require higher education as the economy becomes increasingly knowledge-dependent and more technologically complex and tuitions have grown for ever-more sophisticated degrees. The Biden Administration’s attempts at student loan forgiveness were often blocked by the Supreme Court, which has a six to three conservative majority, as the Republican Party increasingly painted student loan forgiveness as a liberal government handout.
“The new Administration must end the practice of acting like the federal student loan portfolio is a campaign fund to curry political support and votes. The new Administration must end abuses in the loan forgiveness programs,” Lindsey M. Burke, a Heritage Foundation member and director in the Center of Education Policy, wrote in the section of the 922 page tomb concerning education. “Borrowers should be expected to repay their loans.”
The Administration plans to transfer the nationwide student debt load to the Small business Administration – a separate entity meant to help small scale entrepreneurs. About $1.77 trillion of student debt was outstanding between 42,700,000 American borrowers nationwide as of last year, according to the Education Data Initiative.
This is on top of earlier cuts to schools and anti-hunger funding
And that’s not all. Earlier in the month, Secretary McMahon announced a stoppage of $650 million in funding assisting the feeding of underprivileged children and $500 million in cuts to food bank support programs run by the federal Department of Agriculture (USDA), despite the fact that these funds have already been allocated by an act of Congress.
“These cuts to staffing risk weakening the very foundation of public education in our country. They reduce oversight of important federal functions such as ensuring educational access for all students, protecting student rights and managing appropriate distribution of funding,” Naomi Norman, the superintendent of the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, told Ann Arbor Family concerning that earlier action. “This will put tremendous pressure on local communities and state governments to fill the gap in leadership, especially in the area of equal access to education for all students.”
More and more districts are declining to comment, or not responding at all, given the political environment. Ann Arbor Family is still awaiting response from at least half of the districts that we reached out to across Washtenaw County.
Lincoln Consolidated Schools said that they have been so far unaffected by this earlier development. Ypsilanti Schools said that they are currently analyzing the implications.
“With the swift and significant nature of these USDA funding cuts, we are still unpacking their full impact with our business and food services departments,” Chelsea Schools Superintendent Michael Kapolka said. “What I can say with certainty is that cutting over $1 billion in school meal funding raises serious concerns — especially for students who rely on free meals every day. Despite this uncertainty, our priority will be to focus on ensuring every student has consistent access to school meals while advocating for policies and funding that support this endeavor.”
Courts have routinely found that the Trump Administration has no authority at all to stop funding to programs it does not like as the Constitution says also in Article 1, Section 8: “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States” meaning in plain English that Congress has the power to raise taxes and spend money, not the President.
A spokeswoman for Eastern Michigan University deferred questions about how the USDA would affect their Swoop Pantry to Food Gatherers. Food Gatherer’s President said that the government has told them that this program would not be available come April.
“Last fiscal year, this type of USDA food (TEFAP) was 15% of our food distribution, or 1.5 million pounds, or the equivalent of more than 1.2 million meals. This is highly desirable food: milk, cheese, eggs, chicken, pork and fruits and vegetables. The USDA spent $2,261,436 last year on this food,” Eileen Spring told Ann Arbor Family. “At this point, partner agencies are still receiving the volumes of food they expect from Food Gatherers but that will change if food sources are not restored or replaced. We are hoping that the philanthropic community and local government entities will help us fill this gap.”
Food Gatherers is not just the largest food bank in Washtenaw County, it is the most central one. Numerous other food banks and soup kitchens are dependent upon them for some or all of the food that they distribute. A spokesperson for the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County, which feeds families as well as shelters unhoused people mainly out of the Robert J. Delonis Center, declined comment.
