Education in U.S. Could Change Permanently

By Torie Price
Staff writer
IG: @torielprice

President Trump has been making headlines since his Jan. 20 inauguration, voicing his desire to cut, among other things, the Department of Education.

This is by no means the first instance of Trump announcing his wishes to abolish the federal department that oversees American school administration, saying in Oct. 2015 that he “may cut (the) Department of Education” when speaking about the objectives of his first term in the Oval Office. Trump and his administration have said that the intent of abolishing the Department of Education is to reduce wasted government funding, but an unnamed employee of the ED who spoke to NPR has a different perspective.

“If they’re doing this to save government money, they are wasting millions today,” says the ED insider who chose to remain anonymous, “all the money we have spent working on these products, down the drain.”

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is Elon Musk and Trump’s collaborative attempt to cut out unnecessary government spending, but what is unnecessary, and who decides which programs are cut? Musk has been referred to as an unelected government official, as his role as presidential advisor has seemingly shifted into one with the power to affect the finances of any and all governmental organizations he wishes to. The U.S. government was built on the freedom of choice, being a citizen of the U.S. is supposed to mean the innate privilege to have a say in who represents you to the world at large.

“Consolidation of power in the executive (is) one of the defining features of authoritarian governments,” says Brooklyn Walker, a Hutchinson Community College political science professor.

If a government is not representative of the citizens it serves, it can no longer claim to be a democracy. “The U.S., for the first time in its history, is no longer classified as a democracy,” Walker said.

The Trump administration has said that their wish is not to abolish the entirety of the Department of Education, and instead reorganize specific programs into other departments. The role of the Department of Education is to oversee and regulate the laws made by Congress. Rather than being in charge of the state of the United State’s education system, the ED’s responsibility is to ensure that regulations are being followed.

“Trump cannot single-handedly abolish the Department of Education,” Walker said.

For this to happen, a president would need approval from Congress. Walker said that what President Trump can do is “dramatically change the way programs are administered to be different than what they were designed to do by Congress” or freeze their funding. The latter is the road Trump has gone down, as he and Musk have worked together to “(terminate) over $600 million in grants” and “$400 million of federal funding,” according to the Department of Education’s own website.

As of March 11, a reduction in force has taken place throughout the Department of Education. In a press release given by the ED, it has been confirmed that this reduction has “impacted nearly 50% of the Department’s workforce” and the changes in staff will come into effect March 21.

Trump’s appointed Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon stated that she “(appreciates) the work of the dedicated public servants and their contributions to the Department” and that “this is a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system.” With nearly 259 employees of the ED being accepted to the Deferred Resignation Program, and 313 others into Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment, 572 former employees of the Department have been effectively laid off under the Trump administration. The remaining ED employees affected by the staffing cuts will be placed on leave March 21. It has been promised that all affected employees of the ED cuts will be given “full pay and benefits until June 9th, as well as substantial severance pay or retirement benefits based upon their length of service”.

This is just the beginning of what is to come. Together, Trump, Musk, and McMhoan will change the structure of the US education system forever – for better or worse, changes are coming.

Hutchinson Community College students’ lives may soon look drastically different if the attack on the Department of Education continues. Federal funding used to aid the financial burden of furthering education may take away the opportunity for students to attend HutchCC. Educators may lose millions of resources housed by the Department such as stats and research used to make informed decisions on how to teach content. There is no way of knowing which aspects of the Department of Education may be deemed as “a waste of funding.”

Title I’s eradication would cause already struggling low-income schools to suffer even further and perhaps be forced to close down. Loss of accreditation, accommodations, and funding that allow millions to seek education may be a reality all too soon in the United States if the Department of Education is not protected.

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