As president Donald J. Trump entered the white house he expressed the desire to reduce the size and influence of the federal government, including agencies like the Department of Education. Trump had argued that education should be managed at the state and local level and have less federal involvement.
The department of education is responsible for overseeing federal education policies and programs. They often allocate funds to schools, districts, and higher education institutions. They manage and monitor several programs aimed to improve education such as Pell Grants for low income college students, and student loan programs.
While the department of education does not run schools or districts, it does play a crucial role in shaping and supporting the U.S education system.
“Today, the U.S. Department of Education cancelled 18 grants totaling $226 million that were awarded under the Comprehensive Centers Program.”stated by the department of Education.
This is an official statement released by the department of education themselves. What this is implying is regional and national centers will no longer have the capacity of improving instructional material and educational outcomes.
As such, Comprehensive Centers have also been forced to comply with our president’s current agenda onto states and systems that include race- based discrimination and gender identity ideology.
In recent news the department of education has recently announced that they will reduce federal overreach in Charter school programs.
This means that the department of Education will no longer have a hand in the process of reviewing who and how charter school program (CSP) grants are awarded too.
As stated by the department of education in a press release “This decision will allow states like South Carolina to innovate and expand on high-quality charter schools in our state.” This means that states will no longer have to be obliged by any federal regulations and can spend money on charter schools as they see fit.
Since the department of education has no say in how states decide to run schools and districts some states like Texas have already decided to close certain public schools as a way to save the district money.
Kxan News reported “Valley View Elementary experienced a sharp decline in enrollment, with current enrollment at 275 students. The closure is expected to save the district a total of $2 million.”
Certain public schools are set to be closing in the 2025-2026 school year due to the lack of enrollment but saves the district over $2.2 million per public school they close. There has been no plan to where those students in those public schools go to continue on their education or if they can continue to afford their education .
The mission of the department of education as they try to please the agenda of president trump. Allowing the states to have more control over their schools and districts. No longer allowing the federal government to have a say in how they run their schools, award grants and how they decided to distribute funds.
Written by Casandra Aguilar, Staff Writer