On Thursday, March 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to shut down the Department of Education and give more control over schooling to the states. This was after the Trump administration initiated a “reduction of forces,” cutting nearly half of the DOE’s staff. The potential closing brings concerns about the possible consequences of shutting down such an important department.
The DOE was established in 1980 by the Carter administration and has taken on the responsibilities of establishing federal regulations for education, providing equal access through laws and funding and conducting research and data collection about education.
Some of the services included in these responsibilities are things like Pell Grants and federal loans to help students fund college, Title I Funding that gives schools with a high percentage of low-income students funding and programs for students with disabilities and special needs.
In Trump’s speech before he signed the executive order, he said that Pell Grants, federal loans, Title 1 funding and disability assistance will “be preserved in full and redistributed to various other agencies and departments.”
This raised concerns about where these services will be moved. Trump said to reporters in the White House on March 6, 2025, that federal loans specifically will be moved to either the Department of Treasury, Department of Commerce or the Small Business Administration. There is also speculation by Forbes that federal loans may become privatized, which would likely increase interest rates.
This speculation is due to a line in the order, “The Department of Education is not a bank, and it must return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve America’s students.” This could suggest that loans will be moved to private banking entities.
This also seems to follow a similar plan laid out in Project 2025, a far-right policy blueprint made by The Heritage Foundation in collaboration with many politicians on the right. One of its policy plans includes dismantling the Department of Education and privatizing student loans.
Although Trump has claimed multiple times that he is not associated with Project 2025, many of his high-ranking officials have credits on the document, including Brenden Carr, Trump’s pick for chairing the Federal Communications Commission; Paul Atkins, Trump‘s pick to lead The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; and Peter Navarro, Trump’s previous trade advisor. Not to mention, plenty of his executive orders have closely mirrored the plans outlined in Project 2025, especially the attacks on DEI. This leads some to believe that Trump has a closer relationship to the project than he has previously stated.
Based on what Trump has said so far regarding this order, it seems that he has not done much planning on how exactly his administration will move the DOE services and funds. Ultimately, shutting down the department is an incredibly large task and, if it is not properly planned out, will lead to interruptions in these incredibly important services.
Another worry is what might be lost with the department. Federal oversight allows schools to have a more consistent and regulated way of teaching to ensure the collective quality of the U.S. Education system.
The data collection and research done by the DOE is also incredibly important in identifying issues and finding solutions within education.
The department helps to ensure equal access to public and higher education as well. The cuts on DOE staff have already reduced the department’s Office of Civil Rights significantly, which will likely affect the thousands of pending civil rights investigations, ultimately affecting students’ well-being in school.
The order still has to go through Congress and there are many organizations trying to halt it. However, if Trump succeeds in shutting down the DOE, it will bring incredibly detrimental consequences to the future of the U.S. and its education.
Hilary Valdez can be reached at arg-opinion@uidaho.edu.