Education Secretary Linda McMahon told a conservative news outlet she wants to focus less on higher ed this year. The comment comes after the Trump administration's yearlong use of multiple federal departments to pressure universities and their employees and students to conform to the White House's desires.
The Trump administration on Tuesday accelerated the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education with a plan to transfer key, legally required functions to other agencies, including oversight of its $18-billion, core anti-poverty program, Title 1. Critics said the move was politicized and counterproductive and fear future program cuts. California Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said vital services to the state and nation's most vulnerable students were likely to be disrupted.
The announcement includes a partnership with the Department of Labor to take on elementary and secondary education programs and institution-level higher education grants; a partnership with the Department of Interior to take on Indian education programs; a partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services to take on childcare programs and foreign medical accreditation programs; and a partnership with the State Department to oversee international education programs.
The Department of Education notified the state and 16 others in March that the Trump administration had rescinded access to millions in federal money earmarked to combat the pandemic's impact on students across the nation. The recovery funds had been previously approved and awarded to the states from the department and were supposed to be available until March 2026, but the Department of Education abruptly changed course, a lawsuit from the 17 impacted states alleged.
Nine months into President Donald Trump's second term in office, he and his education secretary Linda McMahon have essentially gutted the 45-year-old Department of Education as they work toward their "final mission" of shutting it down. First, they cut millions in grants and terminated hundreds of contracts. Then, they eliminated nearly 2,000 employees via buyouts and layoffs, slashing the department's staff from just over 4,000 to about 2,400.
We took on the Trump administration when it refused to follow the law and denied borrowers the relief they were owed," AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement. "Our agreement means that those borrowers stuck in limbo can either get immediate relief or finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Bay Area universities lost more than $2 million in funds after the Trump administration announced it was rerouting money meant for minority-serving institutions to charter schools and other educational programs, an analysis by Bay Area News Group has revealed. In September, the Department of Education announced it was ending $350 million in discretionary funding for several minority-serving grant programs, alleging the programs were racially discriminatory because qualifying schools must maintain a percentage of minority students in their total student enrollment.
Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, has threatened the layoffs for weeks, citing the government shutdown. Vought wrote on social media Friday that his promised reduction in force had begun. A department spokesperson then confirmed in an email to Inside Higher Ed that "ED employees will be impacted by the RIF." The spokesperson did not clarify how many employees will be affected or in which offices.
To prepare our next generation of American workers, the Trump Administration is taking decisive action to streamline unnecessary bureaucracy and advance the skills needed to fill jobs of the future,
The poll comes as Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders expanding school choice options, encouraging the use of artificial intelligence in schools and returning educational control to the states by dismantling the Department of Education. But despite the Trump administration's insistence on dismantling the department, the majority of surveyed Americans opposed eliminating the department and believe it would have a negative impact on public education.
Jobs involving partisan or nonpartisan voter registration, voter assistance at a polling place or through a voter hotline, or serving as a poll worker—whether this takes place on or off campus—involve political activity because these activities support the process of voting which is a quintessential political activity whereby voters formally support partisan or nonpartisan political candidates by casting ballots.
