Educational advocates across Florida Friday are responding to President Trump’s latest executive order aimed at shutting down the U.S. Department of Education. Education Secretary Linda McMahon is tasked with closing the department and returning education to the states.
Despite the executive order, the education department can only be shut down by an act of Congress.
The president has promised that funding for special education and Title I schools won’t be impacted by this order.
In his order, Trump writes, the department’s closure should be carried out, “while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
Florida Policy Institute Director Norín Dollard is still worried that personnel cuts at the department will hurt students nonetheless.
“I don't know how that is actually possible when there aren't staff to manage the program and ensure that, you know, payments get to states and that they're being used appropriately, things like that,” said Dollard.
Hundreds of attorneys and staff with the Office of Civil Rights were laid off last week. They helped parents fight for a free appropriate public education for children with disabilities. Hundreds more were laid off in departments whose job it was to make sure Title I schools get federal funding and students get help applying for financial assistance to attend college through a FAFSA or Pell grant application.
Watch the executive order signing here:
Andrew Spar, the director of the Florida Education Association, said he shares Dollard’s concerns for Florida students and teachers, especially students of color, LGBTQ students and students with disabilities.
Trump made clear in his executive order that funding would be cut for some schools and programs promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion or what he calls “gender ideology.”
“Literally, over a million students in our state can be impacted by this closure and the programs that the U.S. Department of Education oversees,” said Spar.
But others have applauded Trump’s executive order.
Moms for Liberty celebrated the signing Thursday, "Parents will be empowered and state and local communities will take charge of education,” the group said in a statement.
Governor Ron DeSantis, who attended the executive order’s signing in Washington, D.C., wrote a commentary in the Wall Street Journal this week praising the action.
“The president is doing what other Republicans have promised, but failed, to do,” wrote DeSantis. “This change includes putting American excellence back at the forefront of education policy and ridding ourselves of bureaucratic handcuffs that stifle success.”
On an appearance on Fox News following the signing, he reiterated, “We are cutting out the bureaucracy in education.”
Read the full executive order here.
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