The wounded U.S. Department of Education will survive, but education will suffer

Commentary by Lon Anderson,

Former Press Secretary, U.S. Department of Education

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is under major attack by the Trump Administration, which wants to close it. Just give the money directly to the states and let them spend the money as they see fit, the Trumpers argue.

When you’re talking about an agency with a budget that was over a quarter of trillion dollars last year, that’s a lot of power and influence to send to the states. And that’s why it’s likely not going to happen. The Congress, and the White House, when push comes to shove, will be unwilling to give away so much power and authority to the states. And, in the past, states have sometimes not proven to be the best stewards of education dollars.

The ED must remain in existence. Even before the Department was formally created, its functions were funded and staffed. They were buried in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, or HEW as it was more popularly known. They existed that way until October 17, 1979, when then-President Jimmy Carter signed the bill creating an independent U.S. Department of Education.  

In his 1976 campaign for President, Carter promised teachers and their powerful unions that if elected, he would make education an independent agency with a seat in his cabinet. Carter won his race and delivered for the teachers: the Education Department opened its own doors on May 4, 1980.

What makes the Department’s functions so critical?  Our schools across the nation have a major funding flaw. Almost all public schools depend on the property taxes of the states and counties where they are located. So how are we to balance and make more equal the quality of education offered students in poor states versus those in more wealthy states? How do children in Mississippi, West Virginia and North Carolina have a chance of getting an education anything like those in New York and California? Federal money.  

The U.S Department of Education, in short, is more like a bank than an educator. Its mission is to dispense funding and research results. In fact, any teacher, principal, superintendent or school board has more direct impact on classroom education than the U.S. Secretary of Education.  

The Department in 2024 had a budget of $268 billion. That’s money dispensed with allocations set by Congress via grants and programs or loans to students. The Department is responsible for assisting states, school districts, and institutions of higher education in providing high-quality education to all students, and for leveling the inequitable education barriers faced by underserved students.

When compared to the total spent on education nationwide annually, the federal share is small, but essential. Federal education funding always comes with strings attached, requiring local schools or school systems to do certain things or meet certain standards to improve student outcomes. 

And, of critical importance is the fact that states and localities have become very dependent on that money. Thus, it’s no wonder that NC State Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined with 24 of his colleagues nationwide last month to sue Donald Trump and ED for withholding funds. On June 30, the feds notified state education officials that ED would be withholding $6 billion Congress had authorized for distribution to the states. For North Carolina public schools, that was a $169 million hit, including a $1,236,989 loss for Brunswick County. All money should have been received by July 1 and distributed to counties and school districts immediately, since it impacts fall hiring.

“It’s unlawful and unconstitutional for the Department of Education to withhold money that Congress has appropriated,” Jackson said in a press release. Fortunately, after reviewing the situation, the White House decided it would lose this battle and announced the $6 billion would be distributed, albeit some weeks late. So, even that small $6 billion handout drew quick and strong reactions from states across the nation. 

As you can imagine, managing the spending, handing-out and lending $268 billion, while making sure the recipients complied with the requirements, can take a small army of dedicated, smart and well-trained program analysts. Welcome to the federal education department! Imagine just the additional effort required to monitor the flow of money via Pell Grants and loans to millions of college students, colleges and  universities nationwide. That tracking and accounting, to minimize waste, fraud and abuse, also requires many highly skilled workers. 

And that need isn’t going away.  You can put it under the Small Business Administration or tuck it in HHS to recreate HEW, but it’s still a workforce that’s very much required. 

And then there’s the other critical piece of ED: measuring and researching what is happening in schools and classrooms across our nation, to know how our students are faring. The New York Times on Sunday, August 10, ran a story that demonstrates the difficulties the Trump administration is having--a meltdown that is of their own making. The story “College data is sought, but analysts were fired,” captures the essence. The administration wants more reporting from colleges and universities, but the institutions can’t provide it. Why? Because much of their data is collected and analyzed by the National Center for Education Statistics, our nation’s preeminent keeper and analyzer of education data, and it’s located in the Education Department. 

It’s the unit that would have been responsible for the additional data collection that Trump wanted. Of the 100 employees who worked there, the Times reported, only four remain. Again, an indispensable cadre of highly trained and specialized workers is needed, this time to measure our education system’s performance for Donald Trump. But he fired them.

Based upon my nearly seven years as a proud spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education, I can say with confidence that the men and women I worked with were well-trained, conscientious employees, dedicated to improving American education.  

So, you can stick the employees and their functions elsewhere and call it by another name, but they are essential to keeping our education system working. The problem now is that the huge disruptions already created by the Trump administration will undoubtedly adversely impact a generation of American students and their schools, colleges and universities, not to mention the vital research for which they are responsible. 

In the end, talk about closing the Department should be just that. Talk. Trump can close it, but its functions must continue to be staffed in some form, somehow, somewhere, for the good of our children and our future.

Editor's note: Lon Anderson is the Communications Vice Chair and PR Lead for the Brunswick County Democratic Party