Imagine you’re interviewing for a new role as department head, and part of the job description is to shut the division down. That’s what appears to be happening to Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump‘s pick for education secretary. Her role would lead the department that oversees schools, collects student data, and manages the federal student aid system, but even before she appeared before lawmakers on Thursday for her confirmation hearing, Trump has said he aims to shut down the department altogether. “I told Linda, ‘Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job.’ I want her to put herself out of a job,” Trump told reporters on February 4, adding on February 12 that he wanted the Department of Education to be closed “immediately.”
When announcing McMahon as his education secretary pick in November, Trump posted on Truth Social that one of his goals for her was to “send Education BACK TO THE STATES.” Trump and some GOP lawmakers have said that education can be managed at the local level and that a federal agency isn’t needed. Trump has also signed an executive order to “promote patriotic education” in public schools and eliminate ideologies that don’t align with his politics. The Department of Education doesn’t control classroom curriculum. Eliminating any federal agency requires approval from Congress, and while some Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation to get rid of the Department of Education, there hasn’t yet been enough support to make that happen.
McMahon acknowledged those mechanics during her confirmation hearing, saying that the department “clearly cannot be shut down” without Congress. Still, over the past weeks, Trump has been working to reduce many federal agency functions by laying off staff and canceling the programs they oversee, as he recently did with the US Agency for International Development. Here are some of the Department of Education’s key responsibilities that would be impacted if the agency shuts down.
Manages grants and student loans
One of the Department of Education’s primary tasks is facilitating the $1.7 trillion student-loan portfolio. More than 40 million student-loan borrowers hold federal loans, and the department’s Federal Student Aid office works with student-loan servicers to manage borrowers’ loan repayment. FSA is also responsible for managing a range of student-loan repayment and relief programs, including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. It develops the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, form for students each year and provides Pell Grants for low-income and middle-income college students.
Additionally, the department manages grants for US public schools. Those include Title I funding, which gives funds to school districts in lower-income communities, along with funding for districts that teach students with disabilities. Some Republicans have previously suggested the Treasury Department could facilitate these programs without the Education Department; shifting those responsibilities would be a significant undertaking, education policy experts have said.
Collects data on student outcomes
The Department of Education’s research arm collects data to monitor key student outcomes, including math and reading literacy scores. The most recent scores, collected through the National Assessment of Educational Progress, found that reading literacy was continuing to decline. Nat Malkus, a senior fellow and the deputy director of education policy at the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute, previously told BI that “if it weren’t for the Department of Education,” we wouldn’t even know where kids’ proficiency levels stand. The Institute of Education Sciences, a nonpartisan research arm within the department, funds research on education issues nationwide, including teacher quality, educational interventions, and classroom reform at all levels. State education agencies collect data under federal reporting requirements; the Education Department primarily tracks overall national trends at US schools and provides funding for data collection.
Oversees schools and colleges
The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is responsible for investigating discrimination complaints at K-12 schools and colleges. Most recently, the office resolved a complaint regarding anti-Palestinian discrimination on a college campus. According to the department’s budget documents, the Office for Civil Rights received more than 22,000 complaints in fiscal year 2024, largely on the topics of sex-based and disability-based discrimination. The office projected that it would receive more than 23,000 complaints in fiscal year 2025. While it’s unclear how Trump would go about his plans to dismantle the Education Department, some Republican lawmakers have previously suggested shifting the department’s responsibilities to other federal agencies, such as having the Treasury Department oversee grants and loans.
