Education Day and the Administration’s Escalation Against the Department of Education

Today is Education Day during American Education Week. Instead of celebrating the nation’s commitment to equal opportunity in education, the Trump administration advanced its plan to dismantle the Department of Education by shifting core programs to other federal agencies without Congressional approval.

Before getting into the policy details, I want to speak from the heart about why this matters so much to me. I have shared in this newsletter before that I grew up with a single mom who relied on food stamps, now called SNAP. What changed the entire course of my life was access to a really strong public education. It allowed me to break out of poverty, and that is why I became a teacher. I wanted to help other kids and families do the same.

I spent years teaching in Title I schools, where at least 40 percent of students come from low-income households. These were kids being raised by great-grandmothers, kids from families in crisis, kids whose parents loved them fiercely but did not always have the language skills, the money, or the bureaucratic know-how to navigate the school system. But they always cared. They always wanted the best for their children.

And I know from experience how crucial federal support is. The only way I was able to begin college was with a Pell Grant and by attending community college. Without that grant, I would not have been able to afford higher education, and my life would have taken an entirely different path. Pell opened the door, community college gave me a place to start, and both were possible because of federal investment in students like me.

That is why federal programs matter so much. Title I funding keeps schools afloat. TRIO and GEAR UP help first-generation students get to college. IDEA protects children with disabilities. Federal student aid, including Pell Grants, makes higher education possible. The Office for Civil Rights ensures schools cannot discriminate. These programs are often the only support families have to help their children learn, grow, and move toward a better future.

So when the administration strips these programs out of the Department of Education and hands them to agencies that were never designed to run them, it is not just a bureaucratic shuffle. It directly harms kids who already face the steepest uphill climb. It threatens the very pathways that changed my life and the lives of so many of my students, and it undermines the simple but powerful belief that every child deserves a real chance to thrive. When we dismantle these supports, we do not just cut programs, we cut off futures.

What Was Transferred This Week

The administration announced a broad set of program transfers to agencies without educational expertise. Title I and other K–12 grants, along with TRIO, GEAR UP, and college access programs, were moved to the Department of Labor. Indian Education programs were shifted to the Department of the Interior. Childcare support for student-parents (CCAMPIS) was reassigned to Health and Human Services. Foreign language and international education programs were moved to the Department of State. These changes weaken oversight and disconnect essential support services from the educational mission they were designed to serve.

What They Plan to Transfer Next

The administration has signaled that several core functions may soon be moved out of the Department. These include the 1.6 trillion dollar federal student loan portfolio and Federal Student Aid, the Office for Civil Rights, and oversight of IDEA funding for students with disabilities. These programs represent some of the most important federal protections for equity in education, and their removal would severely undermine national support for marginalized and underserved students.

Why This Dismantling Is a Serious Problem

The Department of Education is the nation’s central defender of civil rights, equal access, and federal accountability in schooling. Transferring key programs to agencies with no educational mission jeopardizes support for low-income students, students with disabilities, Native communities, first-generation college students, and anyone who relies on federal protection under Title VI, Title IX, and disability law. Experts warn that this dismantling will create bureaucratic chaos, waste taxpayer dollars, weaken oversight, and deepen inequality between states and school districts. It also risks destabilizing the federal student loan system and the colleges that rely on federal aid, especially HBCUs, Tribal Colleges, and Minority Serving Institutions.

Representative Brian Fitzpatrick (R) of Pennsylvania warned that “The department’s core offices are not discretionary functions. They are foundational. They safeguard civil rights, expand opportunity, and ensure that every child, in every community, has the chance to learn, grow and succeed on equal footing.”

Kevin Carey of New America called the plan “Wasteful, wrong and illegal” and said “Secretary McMahon is creating a bureaucratic Rube Goldberg machine that will waste millions of taxpayer dollars by outsourcing vital programs to other agencies.”

What You Can Do From Abroad

Tell your Senators and Representative to oppose these transfers, defend Title I, IDEA, Pell Grants, and the Office for Civil Rights, and demand full Congressional oversight. These decisions cannot be allowed to continue without legislative authority or regard for their long-term consequences for millions of students.

You can find the contact information for your Senators here: U.S. Senate You can find the contact information for your Representatives here: Find Your Representative

You can write to all of your members of Congress at the same time using https://democracy.io To make it even simpler, we have a template for an email all geared up and ready for you! 

With gratitude,
Leyani Redditi
Democrats Abroad Italy