America's Education Department Is Being Dismantled: One Year of Trump's Overhaul and What It Means for Public Schools

In March 2025, a principal at an elementary school in the United States told her staff during a morning meeting: "I don't know when the federal grant money will arrive. We're suspending the after-school program for now." This was a Title I school — one that receives additional federal support because it serves a high proportion of low-income students.

Since early 2025, the Trump administration has been gradually dismantling the Department of Education through a sequence of executive orders, budget freezes, grant terminations, and program transfers to other agencies. By April 2026, those changes are having real, tangible effects on the daily lives of millions of students and teachers.

Table of Contents

1. How the Dismantling Has Unfolded
2. The Real Scale of Budget Disruptions
3. What Has Happened in Schools
4. Supporters and Critics: Competing Perspectives
5. Why the Rest of the World Should Pay Attention

How the Dismantling Has Unfolded

Shortly after taking office in January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education. The department was created in 1979 under the Carter administration and has long been a target of the Republican Party, which has historically argued that the federal government should not be involved in education.

As of March 2026, the department has executed nine interagency agreements, transferring 118 programs to other federal agencies. Specifically:

• Department of Labor: Most elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education programs, including Title I (support for low-income schools), teacher professional development, rural schools support, and literacy initiatives
• Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): School-based mental health services
• Department of the Interior: Native American school education programs
• Department of the Treasury: A student loan portfolio worth nearly $1.7 trillion

Why is this transfer problematic? Critics argue that the Labor Department and Treasury have neither the expertise nor the systems to manage these complex programs. A professor at Columbia University's Teachers College warned that "Title I funding is at heightened risk of not reaching school districts on time."

The Real Scale of Budget Disruptions

Core education budget line items have nominally remained unchanged: Title I stayed at $18.4 billion, and special education (IDEA) remained at$15.5 billion, the same in fiscal 2026 as in fiscal 2024. However, disruptions in the implementation process created effects equivalent to actual cuts.

On the night before July 1, 2025 — the eve of the school year — the Trump administration announced it was withholding funding for seven separate federal education grant streams. These funds were intended for teacher professional development, English Language Learner (ELL) support, after-school programs, and adult education. Payment was suspended for "review" with no end date given.

According to EdWeek, the total disruption to school budgets from Trump administration education actions in 2025 amounted to at least **$12 billion**. More than 730 grants worth at least$2.2 billion were cancelled outright. Eliminated programs included:

• Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) grants: $70 million eliminated entirely
• School mental health services funding: $1 billion frozen
• Proposed elimination of the $890 million English learner supplement

What Has Happened in Schools

These changes live not in numbers but in people's stories.

Chaos in low-income schools: Massachusetts announced that $106 million in K-12 federal education funding had been terminated. Without those funds, after-school programs, special education aides, and school counselor positions across the state's school districts are at risk.

Teacher supply instability: With professional development funding cut, training programs for new teachers have been scaled back. In districts already struggling with teacher shortages, unqualified substitute teachers are increasingly covering classes that certified teachers should fill.

Student loan uncertainty: Approximately 43 million American students and graduates hold federal student loans. This $1.7 trillion portfolio has been transferred to the Treasury Department — an agency with no experience administering it. Confusion is emerging around complex processes like income-driven repayment applications, deferment requests, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).

Supporters and Critics: Competing Perspectives

Views on these changes are sharply divided.

Supporters argue: Education should be decided by states and local governments, not the federal government. The Department of Education has consumed enormous budgets for decades without translating them into improved student achievement. Dismantling the bureaucracy will allow more efficient program delivery.

Critics argue: The Department of Education is not merely a bureaucratic entity. It enforces civil rights protections, upholds the rights of students with disabilities under IDEA, and directs support to schools in impoverished communities through Title I. Dismantling it hurts the most vulnerable students most. Randi Weingarten, president of the National Education Association (NEA), warned: "Spreading services across multiple agencies creates more confusion, more errors, and more barriers for people trying to access support."

In practice, the US Congress has repeatedly blocked or limited the Trump administration's most aggressive education budget cuts. The FY2026 appropriations maintained most federal education funding. The tension between executive implementation and legislative appropriation continues.

Why the Rest of the World Should Pay Attention

The dismantling of the US Department of Education is not just an American political story.

It is a fundamental debate about the role of government in education. How much should the state intervene to guarantee educational equity? Does leaving education to local discretion deepen inequality along socioeconomic lines — or does it enable more flexible, effective schooling? This question applies to every country, including South Korea.

Investment in students from low-income backgrounds is central to economic mobility. The long-term consequences of reducing programs like Title I will emerge over decades — 10 or 20 years from now. We need to be tracking the data and watching closely.

In South Korea, debates about education budget priorities and the tension between centralized control and local autonomy are never-ending. The US experiment shows what happens when those debates become policy reality.

Sources

• EdWeek. "In Trump's First Year, At Least $12 Billion in School Funding Disruptions." January 2026. Link
• Bloomberg. "How Trump Is Dismantling the Department of Education, Step by Step." 2026. Link
• EdWeek. "Trump Again Proposes Major Education Cuts in New Budget Proposal." April 2026. Link
• TIME. "What to Know About the Changes to the Education Department." Link
• NEA. "The Plan to Abolish the Education Department—One Year Later." Link
• Hechinger Report. "Tracking Trump: His actions to dismantle the Education Department." Link
• Mass.gov. "Trump Administration Terminates $106 Million in K-12 Education Funding for Massachusetts." Link