Trump Prepares Order To Close Dept. Of Education: See MA Impacts

MASSACHUSETTS - President Donald Trump is preparing to sign an executive order directing his secretary of education to dismantle the Department of Education, according to multiple sources, including The New York Times and ABC News.

Sources with knowledge of the document draft said it directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to work towards closing the department by using all steps "permitted by law," according to an ABC News report.

However, Trump lacks the full authority to close the agency. Most of its spending is ordered by Congress and thus such a move would require congressional approval.

CNN obtained a draft of the order, which reads: “The experiment of controlling American education through Federal programs and dollars—and the unaccountable bureaucrats those programs and dollars support—has failed our children, our teachers, and our families."

An administration official told The New York Times the order could be signed as early as Thursday.

Sen. Ed Markey said in anews release last week McMahon had vowed to dismantle the department.

“Every student deserves to go to school knowing they will get the same high-quality education as the wealthiest family in their community,” Markey said. “But, today, Republicans have made achieving that dream harder.”

Here are some ways Massachusetts residents could be affected by such a proposal:

What Happens To Student Loans?

One of the Education Department’s functions is underwriting the loans that enable millions of people each year to attend college and graduate school. The agency also manages the approximately $1.6 trillion student loan debt portfolio.

About 42 million people nationwide have federal student loans, including about 900,000 borrowers in the Commonwealth. The loans, underwritten by the Education Department, allow millions of people a year to attend college or graduate school.

Borrowers in Massachusetts carry an average debt load of $35,529. Statewide, student loan debt is about $32.1 billion, according to an analysis of publicly available data by Education Data Initiative researchers.

Even if the Education Department were eliminated, borrowers would still have to repay their loans, Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit that helps borrowers navigate the repayment of their debt, told NBC News.

The most logical agency to assume management of the debt portfolio would be the Treasury Department, Mayotte said.

Or, the Justice Department or Department of Labor could carry out some Education Department functions, according to a blog post by The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Another alternative is privatization of the federal student loan system, which some Republicans have proposed.

“The anxiety levels are pretty high for borrowers right now,” Betsy Mayotte told NBC.
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What Happens To Public Schools?

Most public school funding comes from the local level, with the federal government providing an average 13.6% of the funding for public K-12 education nationwide in the 2021-2022 school year according to an analysis by USA Facts of National Center for Education Statistics data.

About 9.7% of public school funding in Massachusetts comes from the federal government.

Gutting federal funding for public schools would hurt some states worse than others, Kevin Welner, the director of the National Education Policy Center, told Axios.

States with larger numbers of lower-income families that receive higher shares of Title I funding would be hurt the worst, Welner said, noting they “don’t have the same capacity to step in and make up that difference.”

“In wealthier states, we would probably see some reduced spending for students and some increased state allocations,” he said. “In states that are already financially strained, because they just have less wealth, this could result simply in less funding and fewer resources for the students.”

Becky Pringle, the president of National Education Association, said in a post on Blue Sky that students would be directly harmed.

“It will drain resources from the most vulnerable, skyrocket class sizes, make higher ed more expensive, strip special ed services, and gut student civil rights protections,” Pringle said. “We won't let this happen.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting.