Coloradans assess how Department of Education job cuts will impact the state

Coloradans are looking at how cuts to the U.S. Department of Education may affect the state going forward.

The department eliminated 1,300 jobs this week. Another 600 employees took voluntary resignations, totaling roughly half of its workforce. Department staffers at the federal building on Speer Boulevard in Denver were told not to come to work Wednesday, but the Denver office was not subjected to the cuts.

Still, the elimination of jobs in neighboring regions at the Office for Civil Rights has some concerned it will be more difficult to protect students from discrimination and bullying.

Disability Law Colorado Co-Legal Director Emily Harvey said, "Without an administrative agency to take those concerns to, parents are left with alternatives like going to a state agency that enforces similar laws or going to court. And that is time consuming and costly."

While President Trump said his administration will shift control of education to the states, he has also signed several executive orders establishing federal regulations for K-12 schools.

In January, Trump signed an executive order prioritizing federal funding for school choice programs. An executive order signed in January banned the "radical gender ideology and critical race theory" in K-12 schools by teaching about race and racism. Another executive order in February would bar federal funding for schools with COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Trump has said he would like to eliminate the Department of Education, but doing so requires an act of Congress.

Dr. Kevin Welner of the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado Boulder said, "There's a question about whether the department can fulfill its statutory and constitutional duties overall if it degrades its capacity so much that it can't carry out, in any sort of meaningful way, the jobs that have been assigned to it by Congress."

The department said it will continue to oversee formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students and competitive grantmaking.

Pam Bisceglia, executive director of Advocacy Denver, said that Colorado receives about 30% of its funding to implement the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) from the federal government. She added, "We do not want the offer of a free and appropriate public education compromised."