that it was reversing its decision to withhold this amount after receiving a letter from 10 Republican senators“ imploring” it to release the funds.
But the president’ s proposed budget for 2026“ eliminated all the grants that had been frozen,” NPR reported.
Compounding the harm inflicted on public schools, Trump and his obsequious conservative majority in Congress also pushed through the One Big Beautiful Bill that will require staffing cuts and additional costs from public school budgets. The administration has also enacted the nation’ s first federal school voucher program that redirects public tax dollars to private schools.
‘ Harmful Risks For Students And Families’
Trump and his conservative allies justify these harms to public schools by insisting that the K – 12 institutions, attended by 83 percent of students in 2021 – 22, are“ woke” indoctrination camps and that all decisions about school spending and operations should be“ returned to states.”
But the federal government has never had the power to set school curriculum, woke or otherwise, and state governments already have primary authority over public education.
Where the federal government does have some influence in education is in its power to conduct research, fund special programs, and ensure, through civil rights enforcement, that students and families have access to education services.
In allowing the Trump administration to dismantle the Department of Education, the Supreme Court’ s conservative majority is giving the go-ahead to abdicate these responsibilities.
The nonprofit education news site The 74 reported that in the initial round of employee firings and voluntary departures“ the hardest hit” offices included the Office for Civil Rights, which enforces civil rights laws in schools; the Institute for Education Sciences, which conducts research and collects and analyzes education statistics; the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the National Assessment of Educational Progress( NAEP), the so-called Nation’ s Report Card; and Federal Student Aid, which helps students pay for college.
A disempowered Department of Education will“ create harmful risks for students and families,” according to a February 2025 analysis by the think tank Century Foundation.“ Millions of Americans rely on federal support from the Department of Education to open doors along their educational journeys.” These“ millions of Americans” include students with disabilities, whose access to education services is protected by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; low-income students, whose schools receive extra federal funding through the department’ s Title I program; and students and families who’ ve requested federal government intervention because they’ ve faced discriminatory treatment in schools due to their national origin, immigration status, sexual identity, disability, race, or religion.
“ The Trump administration is widely expected to turn