Trump Looking to Disband Department of Education
One area that Trump will be looking to make cuts right out of the gate will be the Department of Education.
This, along with the IRS, has been on Trump’s radar since his first run for office.
But if Trump cuts the DoE, how does that impact services currently being run by the DoE?
Cutting Expenses
Donald Trump has appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head the new controversial DOGE office, or Department of Government Efficiency.
The Department of Education is expected to be atop the list for cuts.
The Department was founded in 1979 when the Carter Administration split up the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, creating a standalone department for education and the other services now reporting under Health and Human Services.
In the last three years, the Department of Education has had a collective budget of more than $1 trillion, and there are some serious questions about how much of that budget is going to DEI and how much is going to actual education.
One of the biggest reasons Trump wants to see the DoE ended is to turn over control of education to local and state authorities, which would enable them to tailor programs to be better fit the demographics of the area.
Max Eden, a senior fellow specializing in education at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), stated, "The federal government provides 10 percent of the money, but with it effectively sets more than half of policy for public schools.
"If the Department were cut, the federal financial contribution would likely remain stable, but schools would be fundamentally more free to govern themselves according to local priorities and values.”
The question then becomes what happens to the funding if the DoE goes away, and the answer is pretty much nothing.
The object here is to fold necessary support and programs, including their funding, into other departments and cut the fat from a department that employs nearly 4,500 people.
Another big area of concern for college students will be college aid, such as Pell Grants and Parent PLUS Loans.
I would expect that Trump will have a full-blown plan laid out before he takes over and tries to dismantle these departments.
If this is going to work, he will need the people’s support, so the more they understand, the more we can help push that message.