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Federal Education Funding Faces Sweeping Cuts, Threatening Key Programs
Table of Contents
The Trump administration is dismantling public education, targeting funding for diversity initiatives and students with special needs.
- The Trump administration is moving to eliminate federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in schools.
- Nearly $30 billion in aid is at risk,impacting programs that aim to close achievement gaps for disadvantaged students.
- A proposed nationwide school voucher program could divert funds from public schools to private institutions.
- Twenty states have filed lawsuits challenging the administration’s demands to remove DEI programs.
- Supreme Court rulings have potentially accelerated the department’s ability to reduce staff and reshape educational priorities.
WASHINGTON – The federal government is making a concerted effort to reshape public education,with meaningful funding priorities facing potential elimination under the Trump administration. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has stated the agency’s “final mission” is to halt federal funding for school districts that do not demonstrate the removal of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which President Trump has characterized as “critical race theory and transgender insanity.”
This move threatens nearly $30 billion in federal aid. Such a drastic shift challenges a 60-year bipartisan consensus, established through legislation like the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, which aims to invest federal dollars in closing the achievement gap for disadvantaged students.
Department of Education Faces Staff reductions
The Department of Education itself has seen a significant reduction in personnel. Approximately 2,000 staff members have been terminated or resigned under duress, representing half of the agency’s workforce. A Supreme Court decision on July 14 lifted an injunction, allowing these firings to proceed as legal challenges continue.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissenting opinion joined by justices Kagan and Jackson, warned that the administration’s actions could have a detrimental effect on a group historically marginalized.
School Voucher program Proposed
A significant component of the administration’s agenda is the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which includes a nationwide school voucher program. This program would offer a 100% tax deduction for donations up to $1,700 to organizations that provide educational scholarships. the program, with no cap or expiration date, could cost up to $50 billion annually.
Critics argue that vouchers could devastate public schools by siphoning off federal dollars. Private schools, with their selective admissions, could exacerbate disparities, leaving students with special needs or those from low-income families without access to quality education. Studies from states like Louisiana,the District of Columbia,and Indiana suggest that voucher programs can led to worse academic outcomes,especially in math,for participating students compared to their public school peers.
Joshua Cowen, a professor of education policy at Michigan State University who has studied voucher programs for two decades, concluded that these plans have resulted in poorer student outcomes than the COVID-19 pandemic. He noted that vouchers “promise
