Throughout the decades, the Department of Education has provided the U.S. education system with a wide range of assistance in civil rights, financial funding, research initiatives, and more.
Despite playing a pivotal role in academic explorations, it’s evident the Department of Education is on the brink of disbandment, considering the current state of American politics. This could leave significantly detrimental impacts on all students nationwide. With its future uncertain, grasping a better understanding of the department’s position in the U.S. is vital — especially as a college student. Our educational lives have been significantly molded by it.
Founding of the Department
In 1867, the Department of Education was established amid the Reconstruction Era. Post-civil War America was focused on a new frontier for the nation focused on picking up the formative pieces to refine its domestic affairs, one of these being the nationwide state of education.
Initially, the Department of Education wasn’t intended to administer regulation over existing education directives across the nation; rather, it served as a means for mass data collection on student performance and benchmark reporting. In this way, academic activity could be studied broadly, helping the department understand how education could be improved across America.
For its time, the Department of Education fulfilled a valuable role in the U.S., but due to limited staffing and available resources, the department’s aims weren’t as successful as they could’ve been. This called for a total revamp of the system in 1979 by the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter.
Under Carter’s legislation, the department would serve an even greater purpose under federal administration, tasking the department with essential responsibilities: administering federal funding for low-income districts, enforcing education-focused civil rights laws (e.g., the Equal Access Act), distributing and managing loan programs and grants, and implementing better practice standards to improve academic performance.
Among many other capabilities, undergoing such a drastic change has led us to the current position the Department of Education holds on the nationwide education system.
THe Department in Present Day
Of its most important roles, its administration of federal funding for lower-income schools has become an essential resource for districts unable to support their institutions financially. Backed by Title I, the program responsible for distributing nationwide financial assistance, at least 43% of public schools currently depend on the department for allocated funding, with over 50,000 public schools qualifying for the Title I program this year alone, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Other significant organizations responsible for financial academic assistance, like FAFSA, loan programs, and the Federal Pell Grant Program, have all been supported and refined under the Department of Education.
According to the 2023-24 records of the Federal Student Aid Office, when taking into account the financial hold the Department of Education has on students nationwide, it’s estimated that 25 million K-12 students in low-income families have directly benefited from Title I across public school districts, 9.5 million college students received financial aid through FAFSA’s education tax benefit program, and at least 6.4 million students qualified and received roughly $3,000 in loans as a means to cover academic expenses and living circumstances.
Considering these statistics, it’s evident how essential the department is in fueling equity and opportunity in education systems across the states. Especially acknowledging how economic disparities and inflation impact families, the financial contribution from the Department of Education is more crucial now than ever.
Additionally, the Department of Education is responsible for encouraging an enhanced standard of education for every student type. This involves regulating testing policies, expanding STEM research, and improving parent engagement in students’ education — mostly executed under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
The Department of Education is a paradigm focal point in American politics, shaping the nation’s education and increasing its versatile aptitude. Because of this, it’s not uncommon for specific political agendas to have reserved beliefs surrounding approaches to nationwide education differing from those of the department.
The Department’s Elimination
Since President-elect Donald Trump’s reelection this past November, it goes without question that the U.S. has already begun to see drastic effects instilled into place. Amidst all of his appointing addresses and “MAGA” ambitions, it seems disbanding the Department of Education is at the top of Trump’s to-do list in his return to the White House.
The Trump Administration, along with other Republican supporters, wants to push for a transfer of responsibility for educational directive oversight to state governments instead of control remaining at the federal level.
It’s crucial to acknowledge that the administration risks severely segmenting education systems by abolishing the department. This could mean accepting detrimental disparities in the quality of education and resource allocation, further widening the gap for underperforming communities.
In addition to assisted funding being in the hands of state jurisdiction, another area of concern in eliminating the federal education department is that by giving state-level governments more autonomous control over school districts, benchmark curriculums can be altered to fit socio-political agendas — including alterations in the way sex education, religion, and history are taught. This could mean manipulating beliefs to align state-wide populations with particular perspectives those in power hold.
What this means for Students
As previously mentioned, the implications of abolishing the Department of Education will leave students across the nation uncertain in various areas that education systems heavily rely on.
Significant communities would be severely impacted by the loss of federal funding, low-income programs, special needs accommodations, and other assistance used by families nationwide, leaving millions of K-12 students unaccounted for in their academic ventures.
Furthermore, we’d begin to see even more discretion over advocacy and enforcement for ongoing civil rights movements in the education system; giving greater autonomy to states may imply political bias over social justice.
On a broader scale, measuring students’ progression across curriculums may be harder to address, as their academic performances will directly represent the curriculums they’re under — further varying from state to state.
All of this doesn’t even begin to outline the effects to be left on the already apparent teaching shortages, especially those suffered in Title I districts.
The education we were raised upon has dramatically shaped our nation for over 50 years, all thanks to the Department of Education. The intricate and meticulously functioning systems it supports have not only standardized educational opportunities, but have also upheld the values of equity and progress, ensuring that every child has a chance to succeed in shaping our nation’s future.
That said, we must stay in touch with the status of these significant areas in our governments to stay knowledgeable on the impacts on our nation.