Trump suggests cuts to the education department: NPR

The Trump administration examines dramatic cuts to programs and staff at the US Ministry of Education, including programs for executive action department not protected by the law and calls on Congress to close the department completely.

The performing act could come as early as this week, according to several government sources that were not cleared to discuss the administration’s plans in public.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

News about Trump -Administration’s plans were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

This potential performing act comes after the Trump administration, in recent days, placed dozens of educational department staff on paid administrative leave with a little explanation and said only that the movements were the result of President Trump’s Targeting of performing actions FEDERAL DIVERSITY PROGRAMS.

Overall, the news has uncontrolled departmental staff and is sure to come up with Senate’s confirmation hearing for Trump’s nominees to be Education Secretary, Linda McMahon. This consultation is not yet planned.

The department with approx. 4,400 employees and an annual budget of $ 79 billion have a broad responsibility over three larger areas: Management of approx. 1.6 trillion dollars in federal student loan debt, monitored implementation and enforcement of the country’s law on special education and administration of title I, the most important federal program aimed at improving the results for students with lower income.

Can Trump close the education department?

While the performing act is expected to outline significant cuts to the educational department and even call for its closure, the department cannot be closed through performing action alone.

The department was created by a Congress action In 1979 and as such can only be closed by a congressional act.

Whether there is enough votes in the congress to close the education department is another question completely. House Republicans have tried before and failed, and Republicans enjoy only narrow majorities in parliament and the Senate.

What more is, Public investigations Show a majority of Republicans believe the US government should spend more, no less, on education.

Can Trump make cuts to the education department?

This is a bit cloudy, but yes, it seems that the president’s and his education secretary’s discretion to make some cuts to the department – specifically focusing on programs not created by Congress – and are therefore not protected by the statute.

But much of what the education department does – certainly its signature programs – is protected by the statute, including the most important federal financing flows to public schools:

1. Section I, targeted at districts serving society with lower income. In 2022, the US government spent 15.6 billion dollars through paragraph in.
2. Persons with Disability Education Act, Idea, which is targeted to help districts serve students with disabilities. In Fy 2024 spent the US Government More than $ 15 billion On idea.

Both of these financing flows, like the institute itself, were created by separate congressional actions: Title in in 1965 and Idea in 1975. And as such, it cannot be undeveloped except by Congress. Big changes to both are unlikely as the programs enjoy broad bipartisan support.

Project 2025, A conservative government plan Prepared by several Trump loyalists, recommended to close the department and transform both financing flows into grants without strings, and ultimately phased out the title in, with low income support dollars within a decade. But again, it would require a congressional action – something that seems unlikely.

It is worth noting that Education Secretary Betsy Devos during Trump’s first period Recommended steep cuts To the department through the administration’s annual budget proposal, including changing title I-money for a project 2025-like block grants, but Congress has the power of the purse and instead adopted modest financing increases.

“These are all programs that Congress established and consciously located within the Department of Education,” says Dan Zibel, a former top lawyer in the department and now chief attorney at the National Student Legal Defense Network, “and any changes to these programs would not be just be only short -sighted but requires a new voice from Congress.

It may be possible to move One or more of the department’s signature responsibility to another government agency that would not close the education department, but would strip it of much of its power. Still, says Zibel, all major movements, such as changing the office of federal student assistance and its massive student loan portfolio to the Treasury, as Project 2025 recommended, would certainly demand Congress’ Say-SO.

“Much of what the administration is doing is testing boundaries,” says Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-reliable think tank, “so we see how this works and what can happen in court. I can imagine me that there will be some thinning of the workforce, but it is difficult to predict how aggressively they will move.

Paid administrative leave

While the Trump administration fine-tunes its wider strategy to shrink or potentially try to close the training department, it has already begun to remove staff on a smaller scale.

According to Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Staff Local 252, a trade union representing approx. 2,800 employees outside the management education department have been put on paid administrative leave in recent days.

NPR has spoken to several employees who have been on leave, who shared their stories, provided that we do not share their names, for fear that they would lose their jobs completely.

They describe receiving purposes. ”

None of the staff NPR spoke to say they worked with the inclusion of diversity or accessibility problems. All of them described being shocked and confused when they received the E mail.

“It looks very suspicious,” says Sheria Smith. “Nothing we’ve seen gives some rhyme or reason why these employees were chosen.”

News about staff changes were first reported by New York Times.

A common denominator that connects many of these departmental staff is a diversity and inclusion -focused workshop, known as diversity change agents as they participated at one point. The workshop was not only offered by the department for many years, but, says the staff, participation was encouraged and rewarded by their leaders.

In addition, NPR spoke with several employees who say they attended workshop Agent’s workshop under President Trump’s first administration and was called to do so by Trump’s own political appointed.

In response to a request to clarify why these employees have been put on leave and whether their participation in a diversity workshop is the reason why they are appointed, replied Madi Biedermann, Deputy Generator Secretary for Communication at the Department, with this statement:

“President Trump was chosen to create unprecedented reform for the federal civilian service to ensure that it is credit -based and effective to serve the interests of the American people. At the Department of Education, we assess staff in accordance with the obligation to prioritize meaningful learning Prior to divisive ideology in schools and puts the students’ results over special interests.

An employee of the Department’s Civil Rights Office (OCR), which was placed on leave, earned at his office employee engagement, Diversity & Inclusion Council (EEDIC), a group created under the first Trump administration.

In an E -email dated June 5, 2020, obtained by NPR, Trump wrote the political -appointed Kimberly Richey to several dozen employees chosen to serve in the council, “as we work together to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in OCR, I would urge to encourage you to keep eEDICS Mission Statement at the center of our work … to promote an OCR environment where all employees, regardless of their identity, are fully included, engaged, connected, respected, secure, satisfied and met as well as a workplace where barriers to diversity and equal opportunities are removed.

Richey did not respond to a request for comment.

The departmental employee, who is also an army veteran, served in this diversity council, but said through his lawyer that he otherwise had no involvement in Deia programming.

“There is absolutely no imaginable reason why he should ever be placed in administrative leave,” says Subodh Chandra, a civil rights lawyer based in Cleveland, representing at least two employees in the education department who have been placed on paid leave.

Chandra says he believes that this execution of Trump’s order, which proclaims DEIA programs, violates title seven of the 1964 Civil Rights . ”