By Michael Bielawski
With the federal Department of Education’s ongoing disbandment, Vermont’s Washington delegates, national political think tanks, and others are weighing in on what that means for your local schools.
“Donald Trump is pulling the rug out from underneath a critical element of our education system,” Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt, wrote in a presser on Thursday. “Make no mistake, this new Executive Order will hurt students in communities of every size, educators and staff, and rural America.”
On the conservative side, the think tank The Heritage Foundation has long been advocating to disband the Department.
“From the moment it was created, the Department of Education was a mistake,” they also wrote on Thursday. “It was founded on the false premise that unelected bureaucrats in Washington know better than parents and local communities when it comes to educating children.”
What does this mean for Vermont?
The Vermont Department of Education has a page dedicated to updating on changes in federal policy and how they will impact Vermont schools. It states, “The Agency’s general advice to educators in the face of these executive orders and guidance documents is to proceed with their planned professional development and instructional activities in accordance with SU/SD instructional priorities, needs assessment activities, and State Board of Education Rules, and to consult with your SU/SD legal counsel if they have concerns about any specific activity or action.”
The same post notes that one executive order is expected to be complied with. It states, “The President’s Executive Order of January 29, 2025, Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling, ordered the secretaries of several federal agencies including the Department of Education to, within 90 days of the date of the order, ‘advise the President in formulating future policy’ to implement the order.”
Critical services cut?
Welch in his presser continued that this accounts for reckless slashing of services.
“President Trump has already cut Department workforce in half,” he wrote. “Shrinking the Department of Education further will only slow the critical services it provides to our kids, and slash opportunities to our next generation of students.”
The Trump Administration meanwhile is disputing the notion that any critical services are at risk.
“US Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Sunday insisted there won’t be cuts to programs involving special education and student loans even if they end up administered by other departments,” the NY Post reported on Sunday.
Spending went up
According to a different commentary from the Foundation again published that day, they break down some specific critiques.
“Ever-increasing federal spending on education has supported an ongoing staff surge, with school districts hiring armies of non-teaching administrative staff,” they wrote.
According to a new graph produced by the National Center for Education Statistics, spending on administrative services for education nationwide has essentially doubled between 2000 and 2021 (not including additional growth from the past four years).
The Foundation’s report continues that since the Department’s adoption in 1979, overall spending per student when accounting for inflation has more than doubled, without positive results.
“Yet over the same period, high school students’ scores on math and reading haven’t budged,” they wrote.
Welch concludes that he will put this move through the scrutiny of courts.
“President Trump and Elon Musk have one mission: to break the federal government beyond repair,” he wrote. “The dismantling of the Department of Education defies the powers of the Executive, and is yet another damaging element of the president’s illegal rampage, which will meet fierce opposition in our communities, in Congress, and in the courts.”
For an idea of the resources at stake, for the 2021-22 school year, the federal government provided about 11.6% which comes to 1 in 9 dollars of public school funding for the Green Mountain State, according to USFact.org.
What did the Department actually do?
According to a new study by Harvard University from early February titled “Unpacking the U.S. Department of Education: What Does It Actually Do?” the Department was responsible for financial aid distribution and protecting civil rights.
It says the Department “plays a key role in distributing federal funds, enforcing civil rights laws, and conducting educational research.”
The Department has had a tumultuous history with calls for its disbanding right from the start. They quote their education expert Professor Martin West saying it has “really been a constant feature of its history from the moment it was created.”
The Foundation meanwhile claims that all it has actually done is expand unnecessary and costly bureaucracy.
“Since the 1950s, the number of school personnel per student has skyrocketed by a staggering 381 percent. The number of non-teaching staff has increased by a staggering 709%,” they wrote. “As of 2010, teachers comprised only 50% of total school staff, down from 70.2% in 1950.”
The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle.