How could Trump's plans to dismantle U.S. Department of Education affect Chicago area schools?
President Trump is getting ready to deliver on a campaign promise to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. He is expected to sign an executive order that will direct Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin ending some of its programs and shifting some to other parts of government.
Getting rid of the Education Department has long been a goal for Republicans, but the president can't unilaterally dissolve a department set up by Congress. However, he can weaken the department's role in local schools.
The U.S. Department of Education has been the focus of debate since its inception; a department created by Congress during the Carter administration in 1979.
"When President Reagan ran in 1979 and 1980 for president, he ran on the promise of dismantling the Department of Education," said former Illinois Republican Party chairman Pat Brady.
The department is responsible for distributing federal financial aid, enforcing non-discrimination policies, and overseeing certain grant funding to schools.
In all, it finances less than 10% of the country's public school funding, which primarily comes from state and local taxes.
During this current fiscal year, Chicago Public Schools received about 16% of its revenue from the federal government, a number that includes COVID relief money set to run out at the end of this year.
"The Department of Education doesn't set curriculum. It doesn't set teachers' salaries. It doesn't set school-level policies. The large majority of education policy and education funding has always lived with states and school districts," said Chalkbeat national editor Erica Meltzer.
Meltzer has been covering this long-anticipated change. Getting rid of the Department of Education altogether cannot happen without congressional approval, including 60 votes in the Senate.
"That is never going to happen," said Arne Duncan, who served terms as Chicago Public Schools chief executive officer and U.S. Education Secretary, "so it's sort of a bunch of rhetoric. It's gaslighting."
Duncan also noted that education policy already lies with states.
"If his goal is to move education back the states, I can just say, congratulations President Trump, President Musk. Mission accomplished," Duncan said, "because it's already there. It's been there."
Right now, it is not clear if the services provided by the Department of Education would be completely dissolved or moved.
"Most of the proposals that we've seen floated have talked about moving functions around, and one reason for that is that a lot of these functions are actually mandated by Congress that the federal government do them. And so you would need Congress to agree, 'No, we're not going to do this anymore,'" Meltzer said.
The president can use executive action to weaken the Department of Education.
"We already see a big shift in civil rights enforcement, where the administration is going after – for example – school districts that allow transgender students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity, or that play on sports teams that align with their gender identity," Meltzer said.
It's too early to tell how Trump's plans for the Department of Education could impact local schools. The White House has said the order would not be signed on Thursday, but did not dispute that the order was headed to the president's desk.
