The Trump administration is reportedly drafting an Executive Order aimed at dismantling some or all of the U.S. Department of Education, and although Presidents cannot eliminate a federal agency created by Congress (like the DoE, in 1979), Trump could try to cut its budget or staff.
So despite most funding for public education from pre-school through higher education coming from local taxes and state fundings, there are concerns.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker last month called federal assistance vital to families.
“If they take that away, that’s going to be highly detrimental to the people of our state,” he said. “So, I’m going to do everything I can to preserve that funding. I hope that that does not end up being a target of their attacks.”
The Department of Education has about 4,000 employees operating a $79 billion budget, helping students with special needs and children from low-income households, plus managing federal student loans and collecting and distributing research on learning, teaching testing and more.
Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect also says targeting researching and reporting in the name of efficiency could be government removing pesky facts it would rather not disclose, from inflation and climate change to workplace safety and public schools’ “best practices.”
Silencing education could be disastrous.
“As a percentage of the current yearly federal budget of $6.8 trillion, axing those particularly targeted employees would reduce federal spending by roughly zilch,” he writes. “But if the ‘counting’ agencies are among those targeted for decimation, that ‘zilch’ can be promoted as constituting gazillions.”
Targeting DoEd is unpopular, too. “Only 29% of Americans support abolishing the Education Department,” notes Urban League President Mark H. Morial. “In fact, nearly 70% of voters want to see education funding increased.”
6 comments for “Schools in Illinois could be affected by weakening Dept. of Eductation”
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It would be a complete hazard and disservice to not accommodate special needs students or worse yet to merge them into classrooms where extremes in learning capacities could disable the smooth function of a classroom with mostly general education students, although we diversify lesson planning to accommodate learning styles we can’t go too far from one end of the spectrum to another. It would be dysfunctional and unproductive. .
What about our kids that are in special Ed for some classes How is this going to affect them
It’s really concerning to think about how these cuts could impact local schools in Illinois, especially Peoria. Schools are already stretched thin, and losing resources could make it even harder to provide the quality education students deserve.
It’s concerning how cuts to the Department of Education could trickle down and affect schools in Illinois, especially with already limited resources. Are there contingency plans in place to ensure that students’ needs aren’t neglected?
If the Department of Education’s role is reduced, I worry how smaller or underfunded districts in Illinois will cope. Local resources can only stretch so far, and without federal support, the equity gap could widen even more.