As promised, President Trump has signed an executive order to shut down the U.S. Department of Education (US DOE) and that has many educators, former educators and others, far and wide, concerned about the impact such a development will have on local school systems. State education leaders say the order will negatively impact Georgia students, and retired Gainesville Schools Supt. Merrianne Dyer (pictured) agrees.
Dyer spent 36 years in education before retiring in 2014 – 18 years as a teacher, 18 as an assistant principal, and superintendent for the last six years.
“What it means to a local Superintendents right now is the uncertainty in developing the FY 26 budget,” Dyer said last week. “Federal funds provide teaching and other positions, so there is uncertainty around issuing contracts. (The) school nutrition program is also administered by US DOE.”
Georgia is a “recipient” state already with roughly 21% of the state budget being funded with federal funds, Dyer said. “The states with schools most dependent on federal funding will be hurt the most. Think of Mississippi, Louisiana.” And she has a map on her Facebook page showing these two and 30 others, including Georgia, that would suffer the most, and the majority are “deep red” states where Trump’s base is centered.
Dyer is also worried about another strategy the White House could use – sequestration which could be used as a work-around from Congress. “Federal funds were sequestered (withheld) during the 2008 recession- the time I served as Superintendent. It is a very uncertain and difficult time for School Boards on both the state and local level.”
After signing the executive order, Trump indicated he would transfer oversight and funding to another Department, and he later announced that will be the Small Business Administration (SBA). “For a local school district and state, it would mean that assurances of funding the block grants for Title and IDEA services would be separated and likely reduced or possibly eliminated,” Dyer lamented. “It also means to maintain services as they are now, states and local districts would have to fund them which would increase taxes.” And she added “the SBA is understaffed as is. Not sure how he thinks they can take that on.”
Dyer said the whole idea in creating the department of education was so those states with higher poverty levels and lower state income tax resources could serve children with special needs, low income, provide teacher resources and training to “level the playing field”, and administer college loans.
“Services for special needs are mandated by law through IDEA. Services for Title I, II, III provide funding for low-income students and teacher training as well as services for English language learners. The US DOE provides roughly 12-14% of a local school district’s funding.” And Dyer emphasized that it “does not and never has decided curriculum or teaching methods. Federal funds from US DOE flow through the state DOE, so each state may develop protocols in addition to the federal requirements.” And she noted that abolishing the US DOE cannot be done by Executive Order – Congress has to pass legislation in order to do so.
Lisa Morgan, president of the Georgia Association of Educators tells Atlanta News First she’s not sure how the changes will affect students, but she’s expecting the worst. And parents, like Latoysha Burton from Covington say the coming changes are worrisome.
The Trump administration says “critical” federal education programs like Title 1, which supports low-income students, and IDEA, which supports students with special needs, will still be operated by federal agencies. But as to how it will be funded going forward remains in question.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: GEORGIA NEWS NETWORK WAS THE SOURCE FOR THE QUOTES FROM THOSE OTHER THAN DYER.)