On March 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to begin the dismantling of the Department of Education (DOE). The DOE funds higher education institutes, alongside elementary and secondary schools. Abolishing it would remove that funding. President Trump’s executive order doesn’t automatically abolish the DOE. Only the legislature has the authority to close a cabinet level department, meaning President Trump cannot roll out this plan without congressional approval.
Prior to the dismantlement, the department employed approximately 4,200 people. On Jan. 21, the day after President Trump was sworn into office, around 600 people resigned from their positions. As of March 11, an estimated 2,180 people are employed by the department, an almost 50 percent personnel cut. The United States allocated $268 Billion dollars annually to the DOE, accounting for around 4 percent of government spending.
A myriad of services are provided by the DOE, including federal student loans. 1.69 trillion dollars has been divided amongst nearly 43 million students in the U.S.. Another way the DOE provides funds is through programs such as the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER). The ESSER was created to help schools return their students to the building in wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. It provided 189.5 billion dollars in funding to K-12 schools. The Rockwood School District received 11.4 million dollars over the course of the pandemic from the DOE to help provide education to students in the district. While students were quarantined, the ESSER acted as a safety net for public schools.
Further implications of this decision include, but are not limited to the following: no federal regulation of laws regarding education, federal student aid program likely shifting to a different department such as the Department of the Treasury, education data no longer being collected by the government, and more power given to individual states’ departments.
