President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 20, 2025, that’s sending shockwaves through America’s education system—he wants the US Department of Education gone, and he wants it gone fast.
The move, reported by The Times of India, aims to hand control of schools back to the states, a long-standing Republican dream.
Trump’s team says it’ll boost school performance, pointing to lousy test scores despite the US spending big on kids—more per student than most countries, yet lagging behind places like Europe and China.
But here’s the catch: shutting down a federal agency isn’t as simple as signing a piece of paper.
Congress has to sign off, and right now, the White House doesn’t have the votes.
The Department of Education, born in 1979 under Jimmy Carter, isn’t a huge player in funding—covering just 8% of school budgets, per its own stats (Federal Role in Education)—but it’s critical for stuff like Title I cash for poor kids and special ed support through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
If Trump gets his way, those programs could get slashed or turned into state-managed block grants, a shift the National Education Association (NEA) warns could axe 180,000 teaching jobs and hit 2.8 million low-income students hard. College kids might feel it too, with Pell Grants and the $1.8 trillion student loan mess—40% of which is past due—potentially shifting to agencies like the Small Business Administration, a plan U.S. News says is a logistical nightmare.
Things are already moving. The order triggered layoffs of 1,300 staffers, nearly half the department’s workforce, with workers getting just 30 minutes to grab their stuff and turn in their laptops. One employee called it “a slap in the face and kicking us while we’re down,” a sentiment echoed in the Times of India piece.
The Office for Civil Rights, which fights discrimination in schools, could lose its teeth, and that’s got teachers and unions up in arms. The NEA’s Becky Pringle is sounding the alarm, predicting bigger classes, pricier college, and weaker protections for kids with disabilities. A Nebraska teacher told PBS NewsHour Classroom it’s like stepping back to the 1960s, when special-needs kids had no rights to schooling.
Opposition isn’t just loud—it’s got teeth. Legal challenges are coming, likely from unions and civil rights groups, because scrapping a department needs more than an executive pen—it needs Congress. The Century Foundation says Trump might try sneaky workarounds, but courts could slap those down fast.
Even if the department doesn’t vanish, shuffling its jobs to other agencies could be a mess—imagine the Small Business Administration handling student loans.
Critics, including Harvard’s ed school (Unpacking the U.S. Department of Education), argue the department’s vital for keeping schools fair nationwide, while Trump’s camp calls it bloated bureaucracy.
This isn’t new territory for Republicans—some have hated the department since day one, claiming it’s unconstitutional because the Constitution doesn’t mention education, per Wikipedia.
Back in the ‘60s, federal involvement kicked off with laws like the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, growing into No Child Left Behind and today’s Every Student Succeeds Act (FindLaw).
Compare that to Canada or Germany, where education’s all local—no federal overlord—but they don’t have America’s wild state-to-state gaps.
The fallout’s unclear. States might innovate, sure, but without federal guardrails, poor districts could sink while rich ones thrive. The Center for American Progress crunched the numbers—180,000 teachers gone, millions of kids losing out. Special ed could take a hit too, leaving families scrambling. And higher ed? Good luck getting a Pell Grant if the system’s in flux. Education Next says it’s a gamble—could spark genius or chaos.
Trump’s order is bold, no doubt, but it’s on shaky ground. Legal fights and a divided Congress could stall it dead. For now, 1,300 workers are out, unions are raging, and kids, teachers, and parents are left wondering what’s next.
