On March 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing his Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin closing the Department of Education. The signing was an impeccably staged ceremony complete with state flags and cute kids sitting at desks behind him.
While Trump believes returning decision-making power over education to the states will empower parents, there are some important details he either hasn’t thought about or isn’t sharing with the rest of us, like what will happen to student loans and support for children with disabilities.
If news like this has you worried, you’re not alone: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has been an outspoken critic of the move.
“Shutting down the Department of Education will harm millions of children in our nation’s public schools, their families and hardworking teachers. Class sizes will soar, educators will be fired, special education programs will be cut and college will get even more expensive,” he said in a statement.
Although only an act of Congress can completely shutter a government agency, the administration is already doing everything it can to strip the DOE down to the bone, including the March 11 announcement of a 50 percent reduction of staff. If Trump gets his way, these are some of the ways a closure of the Department of Education could impact Black students in this country.
The Largest Source of Loans
One of the areas a DOE closure could be felt the most is the distribution of financial assistance for education. The Department of Education oversees the office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), the largest provider of financial assistance for students in the United States. The office oversees the management of financial assistance programs that make post-secondary education more affordable, including grants, work-study, and loans, including providing free assistance to families as they navigate the financial aid process. According to a 2020 report from the Department of Education, over 70 percent of Black students received grants compared to 61 percent of white students. Close to 50 percent of Black students took out loans compared to nearly 40 percent of whites.
Funding for Public Education
Although most of the funding for public schools comes from your state and local government, there are two key areas where the DOE oversees Federal funding that supports public schools. Title I provides money to serve low-income communities. According to Education Week, Congress approved more than $18 billion for Title I funding in 2023. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides money to support free education that meets the needs of students with disabilities. In 2024, Congress authorized more than $15 billion to support this initiative.
What Your Child Learns
One of Trump’s biggest arguments in favor of closing the DOE is his “anti-woke” agenda. Although the Department doesn’t influence what is taught in schools, President Trump wasted no time using his power to change things.
On Jan. 29, he signed an Executive Order “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” which would revoke Federal funds from K-12 institutions that support anything the administration believes is a “harmful” and “anti-American,” including teaching about race and racism.
The order argues that “innocent children are compelled to adopt identities as either victims or oppressors solely based on their skin color and other immutable characteristics” and “young men and women are made to question whether they were born in the wrong body and whether to view their parents and their reality as enemies to be blamed.”