Trump has called for the abolition of the Education Department. What does this mean – CNBC TV18

Throughout his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump condemned the federal Department of Education as being infiltrated by “radicals, fundamentalists, and Marxists.”

He has chosen former wrestling executive Linda McMahon to lead the department. But like many conservative politicians before him, Trump has called for eliminating the department entirely — a cumbersome task that would likely require action from Congress.

The main role of the agency is financial. Annually, it distributes billions of federal funds to colleges and schools and manages the federal student loan portfolio. Closing the department would mean redistributing all those duties to another agency.

The Department of Education plays an important regulatory role in services for students, from students with disabilities to low-income and homeless children.

Indeed, federal education funding is at the center of Trump’s plans for colleges and schools. Trump has vowed to cut federal funding to schools and colleges that promote “critical race theory, transgender paranoia and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content” and would reward states and schools that promote teacher tenure. End and implement universal school choice programs.

Federal funding makes up a relatively small portion of the public school budget – about 14%. Colleges and universities rely more on it through research grants along with federal financial aid that helps students pay their tuition.

Here’s a look at some of the department’s key functions, and how Trump has said he might approach them.

The Department of Education manages approximately $1.5 trillion in student loans for more than 40 million borrowers. It also oversees the Pell Grant, which provides aid to students below a certain income threshold, and administers the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which universities use to allocate financial aid. Let’s do it for.

The Biden administration has made canceling student debt a signature effort of the department’s work. Since Biden’s initial effort to cancel student debt was overturned by the Supreme Court, the administration has forgiven more than $175 billion for more than 4.8 million borrowers through a number of changes to programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

Loan forgiveness efforts have faced Republican opposition, including litigation from several GOP-led states.

Trump has criticized Biden’s efforts to cancel the debt as illegal and unfair, calling it a “total disaster” that has “ruined young people.” Trump’s plan for student loans is uncertain: He hasn’t put forward detailed plans.

Through its Office for Civil Rights, the Department of Education investigates and issues guidance on how civil rights laws should be enforced, such as for LGBTQ+ students and students of color. The office also oversees a large data collection project that tracks disparities in resources, curriculum access, and discipline for students from different racial and socioeconomic groups.

Trump has suggested a different interpretation of the office’s civil rights role. In his campaign platform, he said he would pursue civil rights cases to “prevent schools from discriminating on the basis of race.” He has described diversity and equity policies in education as “blatant unlawful discrimination” and said that colleges that use them would have to pay fines and have their endowments taxed.

Trump has also promised to exclude transgender students from Title IX protections, which affects school policies on students’ use of pronouns, bathrooms and locker rooms. Originally passed in 1972, Title IX was first used as a women’s rights law. This year, Biden’s administration said the law prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, but Trump could undo it.

While the Department of Education does not directly accredit colleges and universities, it oversees the system by reviewing all federally recognized accrediting agencies. Institutions of higher education must be accredited to gain access to federal funds for student financial aid.

The accreditation came under scrutiny from conservatives in 2022, when the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools questioned political interference in Florida’s public colleges and universities. Trump has said he would fire “radical left-wing accreditors” and take applications for new accreditors who would maintain standards, including “protecting the American tradition” and removing “Marxist” diversity administrators.

Although the Secretary of Education has the authority to terminate relationships with individual accrediting agencies, this is a difficult process that is rarely followed. Under President Barack Obama, the department took steps to revoke accreditors of now-defunct for-profit college chains, but the Trump administration halted the move. The group, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, was abolished by the Biden administration in 2022.

Most of the Department of Education’s money for K-12 schools goes through large federal programs, such as Title I for low-income schools and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Those programs support services for students with disabilities, lower grade students with extra teaching positions, and pay for social workers and other non-teaching roles in schools.

During his campaign, Trump called for transferring those functions to the states. He did not provide details about how the agency’s core functions of sending federal funds to local districts and schools would be handled.

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a sweeping proposal that outlines a far-right vision for the country that overlaps with Trump’s campaign areas, offers a blueprint. It suggests moving oversight of programs for children with disabilities and low-income children first to the Department of Health and Human Services, before eventually phasing out funding and transferring it to states in grants with no strings attached. be changed.