The Supreme Court said it could be miniaturized, at least for now. What does that mean for students, parents and teachers?
US Congressman Frankel says the demolition of the education department will affect local schools
Rep. Lois Frankel is working on President Trump’s move to shut down the U.S. Department of Education at a press conference in West Palm Beach.
WASHINGTON – Monitoring President Donald Trump’s campaign to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education has not been easy for students, parents and teachers.
The effort was multifaceted and elicited. And that’s not exactly near exactly.
Another major development came on June 14 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could advance by firing more than 1,300 education workers.
Staff, including helping protect students and teachers from discrimination, supporting university financial aid offices, compiling data on national schools, including those responsible for that – was fired in March.
But the green light of the Supreme Court was accompanied by a warning. Justice did not control the merits of the case. They allowed agents to carry out layoffs while the legal challenge progressed.
To be clear, there is not much to change in the wake of this week’s Supreme Court decision. All workers who were let go in March have since been locked out of their work. The current difference is that their termination is formal (unless the judge is subsequently in another rule).
And despite all the big talks from the White House, the education department has not disappeared. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has made it clear that she knows she can’t completely eliminate her agency without the help of Congress.
For many onlookers, the twists and turns of the education sector saga were unpredictable. The news is confused. And the rhetoric that comes from people on both sides of the problem has left some scary things.
This can all affect you:
Your child’s school
Public K-12 schools are supervised at the local level, primarily by the school board. But they receive about a tenth of the funds from the federal government. And the funding includes places where the education sector appears.
Agency layoffs have three major areas of potential impact on K-12 schools.
First, there may continue to be disruptions in federal funding. This can cause other issues that school administrators are trying to balance their budgets. For example, funding estimates for low-income schools that rely on Title I grants have been delayed by a month this year. This type of uncertainty can lead to cost-saving measures such as job freezes in the district.
Additionally, there will continue to be fewer federal workers to address reports of discrimination that affect students and teachers. The Trump administration has rejected hundreds of lawyers at the Education Bureau’s Civil Rights Office and closed more than half a dozen regional offices.
Finally, the federal data on which school administrators and teachers rely on is at risk. The National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees some of the nation’s most important educational advancement assessments, was returned to only a handful of people in March. Without that data, teachers may have difficulty ensuring that students’ learning is on track.
Your financial aid
Since the layoffs for the education sector were announced, universities across the country have reported widespread issues in managing financial aid.
That’s because the department that lost most of its employees is the federal student aid office, providing students with helping to pay the university.
A survey of around 900 universities issued on May 21 revealed a new bottleneck in the federal financial aid system. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators missed emails, long phone waiting times and wider disruption made it difficult for universities to make students accessible to financial aid.
Your student loan
Student loan borrowers will continue to receive less support for layoffs.
The person responsible for undergraduate staff to hold student loan servicers responsible for the student loan servicers will not return to work. Nor are other workers who helped borrowers with the most complicated lending problems.
Despite the lack of staffing, the education sector’s workload has grown. After President Trump signed his large taxes and bill, the agency was tasked with implementing two new loan repayment programs and a complex system to hold universities accountable.
Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA Today. You can contact him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @Zachschermele and follow Bluesky at @Zachschermele.bsky.social.
