All districts — Oversight and best practices, special-education funding and services, civil rights resources for schools, a general sense of guidance and direction in the world of education — these are just some of the things that parents fear could be casualties of President Donald Trump’s push to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
Although a federal judge has issued an injunction seeking to block Tump’s attacks on the department, the DOE remains in the administration’s crosshairs, and parents are speaking out in its defense through Michigan Education Association-led demonstrations like the recent “walk-in” events at Grand Rapids Public Schools and a trip to Lansing to rally for public education.
Parents say they’re fearful of a loss of funding reserved for students and families that need it most. Lisa Lint-Vander Zouwen, whose children attend GRPS, said she’s worried that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Title I could be stripped back or fundamentally altered.
“One big fear is that it could take away a big chunk of the money we get for Title I, which serves lower-income communities. That would have a big impact on Grand Rapids Public Schools,” Lint-Vander Zouwen said. “DOE also works with IDEA, so if it was dismantled that would also have a direct impact on all students with disabilities.”
Dan Behm, executive director of Education Advocates of West Michigan, said closing the department would require an act of Congress to undo the law that created it in 1979. He said a bill calling for the shuttering of the department would be unlikely to pass through both chambers of the U.S. Legislature.
“While such a bill might be able to pass the U.S. House, it will not pass the U.S. Senate,” Behm explained. “In the Senate, 60 votes are required to move a bill such as this. There are only about 50 or 51 senators that would support this proposal.”
Cuts to federal K-12 education funds would face similar odds.
“I do not see any scenario where there are 60 senators (voting) to reduce any federal funding for K-12 education,” Behm said.
Still, the Trump administration is targeting the Education Department for closure through an executive order and slashing its staff, and parents like Lint-Vander Zouwen are not happy about it.
‘By dismantling the Department of Education now, you’re not going to have any visibility on how students are performing, how they’re comparing, where the money’s going.’
— Becky Olson, Forest Hills parent
Department ‘leads how we approach education’
The Department of Education helps shape policy, offers guidance on the application of civil rights laws in schools, ensures equal rights for students with disabilities, distributes and monitors federal education funding, tracks academic performance metrics, oversees student loan debt, conducts research, and supports state and local schools, among other functions.
The department also offers oversight and acts as a guide for school systems. What would happen to the oversight the DOE provides in the event of the department’s closure is a chief concern noted by parents and shared by 84th Dist. State House Rep. Carol Glanville, D-Walker.
Without the DOE’s research and monitoring, Glanville said, schools would be rudderless.
“The Department of Education is our data center. Without that data warehouse, without that data hub, we lose sight of best practices, collaboration within states and across state lines, and the whole nine yards,” Glanville told SNN.
“That’s one of the pieces a lot of people are unaware of. The Department of Education leads how we approach education, so that’s a big loss and I don’t know how we make that up.”
Glanville said she expects the Trump administration’s long-term goal has to do with a plan to divert resources away from public schools in a push for privatization.
Becky Olson is an education advocate and a parent of two Forest Hills students. Olson has similar fears about the loss of the DOE as a compass, the end of the accountability the department provides, and the possible path to privatization.
“Private schools … don’t have to show scores, what they’re spending, what it’s being spent on. They don’t have nearly the level of federal and state auditing that (public schools) do,” Olson said. “Intentionally taking away the data that we’re using as a temperature check — that’s what concerns me the most.
“By dismantling the Department of Education now, you’re not going to have any visibility on how students are performing, how they’re comparing, where the money’s going.”
‘One big fear is that it could take away a big chunk of the money we get for Title I, which serves lower-income communities. That would have a big impact on Grand Rapids Public Schools.’
— Lisa Lint-Vander Zouwen, GRPS parent
‘Why would you take this apart?’
Erin Ignatoski is a GRPS parent who, along with Lint-Vander Zouwen, has been active in protesting the potential closure of the Education Department.
Ignatoski said the attacks on the department feel “very personal,” and she takes issue with the assertion that the reason behind DOE cuts has anything to do with curbing extraneous spending, as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency purports.
“It feels like this department that’s in charge of efficiency has gone after the smallest and the most effective department that exists, and there’s an unfairness and an outrage in that,” Ignatoski said. “Why would you take this apart? We all need these supports; they’re good for literally everyone.”
Lint-Vander Zouwen is also suspicious of the administration’s intentions.
“To be completely honest, I don’t trust anything that the current government is saying,” she said. “The attitude of just slashing things willy-nilly is not the appropriate approach, especially to education — and especially to public schools that are already struggling.”
Ignatoski and Lint-Vander Zouwen both expressed concern about the future of federal special-education funding. That’s also an area that Jennifer Gard, a parent-liaison for special education at Kent ISD — and a parent of Rockford Public Schools students, one of whom has Down syndrome — is keeping an eye on.
“The Department of Education provides about 10% of funding for states, which doesn’t seem like a ton, but it is a lot of money, especially when … I think of all the supports and services that are in place for my daughter,” Gard said. “I worry about what that might look like when the expertise and oversight and funding could be impacted.”
Like Behm, Gard doesn’t foresee IDEA being radically impacted, but if there’s a widespread push to drown out public education in favor of a privatized system, IDEA — which ensures special-education services to children in public schools — wouldn’t be as effective.
“Under IDEA, students with special education (needs) are only really protected in public schools,” she said. “Private schools have the right to deny schooling for students with disabilities. They don’t fall under those protections.”
‘We’re going to lose so much if we lose our Department of Education, and there’s no accounting for where those services are going to go.’
— State Rep. Carol Glanville
‘We don’t know where the chips might fall’
Though shuttering the DOE outright would require an act of Congress, Trump is also pushing more indirect tactics, tasking Secretary of Education Linda McMahon with exploring ways to render the department obsolete by splitting its services among other agencies.
Olson, in Forest Hills, believes that one way or another, the DOE will eventually be eliminated, even if it takes some time.
“My hunch is that it will happen,” Olson said. “It’s a really scary time as a parent and having so much uncertainty about what the future holds.”
Glanville said it’s hard to speculate on outcomes, but she’d like to think the department will stay intact. While she doesn’t necessarily disagree with a shuffling or reorganization of some of its components — having a more fiscally focused agency handling student loans might be wise, for one thing — she stressed that shutting it down entirely would be folly.
“We’re going to lose so much if we lose our Department of Education, and there’s no accounting for where those services are going to go,” she said.
Glanville, Ignatoski, Lint-Vander Zouwen and Gard all agreed that, regardless of the intent or end result of targeting DOE, the effect of the current administration’s attack on the department has been one of confusion, chaos and shock-and-awe intimidation.
“We don’t know where the chips might fall,” Glanville said, “but if it’s not the intent of the administration to create a feeling of apprehension, then they need to find a new way to communicate what’s going on.”
What to do about it
In addition to protests, there’s been some pushback from school officials on Trump’s plan to end the DOE. In the spring, close to 100 Michigan school board members — including trustees from Grand Rapids and Forest Hills school districts — signed a letter to the state’s congressional delegation asking to preserve the department. GRPS and FHPS school board trustees did not respond to SNN’s requests for additional comment.
As for what the average person can do to stand up for the department, Gard recommends “being as informed as possible,” vetting information gleaned from media reports and reaching out to elected officials to make concerns known.
Ignatoski and Lint-Vander Zouwen are all about getting involved, at any level. They encourage parents to find like-minded people and mobilize.
“It’s about building community and staying in contact, and finding other organizations and other families that are doing the same thing,” Lint-Vander Zouwen said.
Glanville encouraged people to “be engaged” with their local school boards and lawmakers. Olson, too, said it’s critical to contact congressional representatives and explain to them just how important and valued federally funded DOE services are.
“We really have to fight tooth and nail,” she said, for every dollar of federal funding and for all the protections the department provides.
Read more:
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• What would closing U.S. Dept. of Education mean for special education in Kent County?