The cuts to ED workers might have deleterious impacts on applications. Even when layoffs don’t translate to cuts in program funding, they may have an effect on mortgage servicing, FAFSA, particular schooling providers, or the like.
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION. Yup. Chopping the division by 50 % actually might impression its capability to reply questions or handle operations. Certainly, some media accounts have instructed it’s already occurring. After all, it’s additionally doable the cuts might make approach for a extra agile, environment friendly division. However the administration hasn’t but defined the rationale for the cuts it made, articulated a imaginative and prescient of how a leaner ED will work, addressed the varied sensible considerations, or supplied proof to assist its logic. Till it does, confidence within the efficacy of the cuts is generally a matter of religion.
Whereas the president says he’s in search of to empower the states, dismantling ED received’t essentially accomplish that. Heck, it feels like downsizing ED might even complicate efforts to slash pink tape or shift authority out of Washington. It’d make it more durable to streamline guidelines or difficulty waivers.
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION. The inefficiency at ED is much less in regards to the folks than the morass of guidelines and laws which have collected over a long time. That is extensively misunderstood. Have a look at Title I, as an example. Chopping workers (and even dismantling ED) received’t resolve the problems with this system’s “effort and time” reporting, “complement not supplant” strictures, or “upkeep of fairness” mandates. Equally, the boggy forms that suffuses particular schooling is much less in regards to the ED staffers who function it than the stacks of case legislation and accompanying guidelines that complicate it. Lowering the federal payroll is ok however doesn’t actually remedy these issues. Slashing pink tape and returning energy to the states requires rewriting guidelines, issuing waivers, convincing state and college leaders that it’s protected to behave autonomously, or passing laws that may reboot the system. And it’s doable {that a} lack of educated workers or the lack of institutional reminiscence might make these items tougher to do.
There’s a political threat right here for the White Home. Given the high-profile try to interrupt up the division, the Trump administration might go away itself open accountable for all method of acquainted issues in Okay–12 and better schooling.
Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION. When President George W. Bush contemplated invading Iraq in 2002, Secretary of State Colin Powell famously warned him in opposition to doing so. Why? “You break it, you’ve purchased it,” he mentioned. That warning is apropos right here. DOGE has painted a vibrant goal on ED, and President Trump’s White Home signing ceremony means he’s publicly and viscerally concerned. The administration’s “transfer quick, break issues” strategy will make it powerful to dodge duty if issues emerge with FAFSA, pupil lending, or particular schooling, whatever the wrongdoer. If Crew Trump fails to make a convincing case that issues are beneath management, it will likely be simpler for Democrats accountable the EO for all kinds of frustrations—regardless of how tenuous the declare. Musk waving his chainsaw, Trump signing that EO, after which a collection of suburban mothers blaming Musk and Trump for particular ed complications might present indelible photographs for Democratic marketing campaign advertisements in 2026.