As Donald Trump’s inauguration date crept closer, Lily Pierce, a junior student at Bowie, thought deeply about how the promises made by the Trump administration might affect their future. As Pierce thinks about their dream career of becoming a teacher, they feel hit with the realization that they, along with other future educators, will not be able to have the freedom to fully support and educate their students in a welcoming environment with the restrictions in education promised by Trump.
“In schools, to learn and create empathy for the world around you is by learning about different types of people, cultures, and religions,” Pierce said. “If you are refusing to teach that our world will know no empathy.”
Although Trump has since retracted his name from Project 2025 during his campaign, his promises and Project 2025’s conservative ideas align. Both believe that eliminating the Department of Education and limiting federal ties to education is the best course of action for education in America. However, for this to go into motion, it would need to pass through Congress.
“One other thing I will be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education,” Trump said. “Sending all education work and needs back to the states, we want them to run the education of our children.”
The Department of Education (DOE) was established by former president Jimmy Carter in 1979 in hopes that all students in America would have equal access to a quality education. The goal of the DOE, according to its website, is to foster educational excellence and to ensure equal access for learners of all ages. They received 4.0% of all federal funding as of 2024, approximately $268.35 billion, to allocate grants to states for specific programs such as Title I, Title IX, and the Individuals Disability Education Act (IDEA).
“The United States spends more money on education than any other country in the world and yet we get the worst outcome,” Trump said. “We’re at the bottom of every list.”
Federal, state, and local governments provide $878.2 billion to fund K-12 public education. The funds administered by the DOE are only approximately 8% of that total. In Texas, federal funding only represents 6% of the total amount of public education spending. Trump has said that with the high amount of federal money going into the Department of Education, there should be better results for students academically. As of 2024, 64% of Republicans support the act of dismantling the DOE, agreeing with Trump’s statement that there should be better educational outcomes for their kids.
“I think the dismantling of the DOE could mean a couple of things; One it could mean a reduction in the overall amount of federal funds that actually get to Austin, which would impact the number of teachers we have or instructional coaches that help provide support to our new teachers,” Executive Director, State and Federal Compliance and Accountability, Christy Fox said “ I think that it would potentially shift how we allocate our resources.”
Title I, has been an established program since 1965 that receives regulated federal funding under the DOE to help low-income students meet that standard. Programs like Title I help fund over 50 schools in Austin that have 75% or higher of low-income enrolled students, like our neighboring high schools Akins and Crockett.
“There are good things that happen by having federal regulation, like with Title I if we accept these funds which we do in Austin; right now we have a grant that is worth 18 million dollars just for Title I, but there are other grants as well from the DOE,” Fox said. “When we accept those grants we commit to spending a majority of those Title I funds at our low-income schools so that federal protection is helpful.”
Title IX is another program under the DOE that passed in 1972. It ensures that students who have experienced sexual and gender discrimination and sexual harassment in schools are protected and protects activities, like sports, that receive federal assistance.
“With the DOE there are a lot of Title IX regulations, and those are related to protecting sex and gender discrimination, and in Texas, that’s already a hot topic,” Fox said. “ In AISD I believe it would still maintain dignity and ensure the protections for all children regardless of their sexual orientation, identity, gender.”
Since the dismantling of the DOE has not passed through Congress as of now, it is uncertain where these funds for students at a disadvantage will go. Trump has stated that he plans on sending education back to the states, implying that decisions on how money would be used will be decided at the state level without federal regulation attached.
“I think Austin could be the place where we can demonstrate how it is successful and how those funds still need to go to our urban school districts,” said Fox. “It would be sad because there are some universal federal protections that are offered through being a part of the Title I grant that the state may or may not subscribe to if it were to go to the state.”
To implement and develop policies and programs relating to education matters, Trump has nominated Penny Schwinn for the US deputy secretary of education. Schwinn has a background in education, as she is a former Tennessee education commissioner and earned her PhD in education policy from Claremont Graduate University in South California.
“Penny is a true conservative with a brilliant mind for education,” Governor of Tennessee Bill Lee said in a statement on Facebook. “Tennessee benefited from her service and now our country will.”
Both Trump and Project 2025 push for the disbandment of critical race theory and LGBTQA+ discussions in schools nationwide. It is part of Trump’s 20 core promises for America to cut federal funding for schools that teach said topics.
“We can’t get rid of anything, LGBTQ+ people have existed since the dawn of time, and they will continue to exist; and critical race theory is not taught in k-12 schools, not officially, and it is not in Texas Essential Knowledge, and Skills (TEKS),” Fox said. “There is a commitment to inclusion and celebrating the community that we live in, and a part of the culture of AISD is that we are inclusive, diverse and that we celebrate one another’s similarities and differences; so I don’t know that it can be easily undone just because someone said it’s not allowed.”
Trump offers additional context on his views with the recent release of the executive order; Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 schools on January 29, 2025. Trump outlines his disapproval of what he views as anti-American ideologies, and how such practices erode critical thinking.
“Keep politics out of our education, education should not be political,” Pierce said. “We are talking about our children’s future, which is not political.”
Trump’s plans for the feature of k-12 public schools evolve through his executive order, though executive orders are not final as they can be called for federal review, as executive orders are the president’s written instructions not laws. We will see how this affects schools in the upcoming weeks of his term.
“The advice I would give is to continue to be informed, to talk to our school board members, to your school administrators, to your teachers, advocating for those things that you do believe in,” Fox said. “I would also encourage educating yourself and sharing your story because it can be more difficult to ignore the humanity of people when we are collectively sharing the same story and similar experiences and fears.”
