President Donald Trump’s plan to shutter the Department of Education is, first and foremost, an attack on the education of this country’s most vulnerable students. While Trump and his allies will tell you that they are “returning education to the states,” the truth is that states already control education. Trump’s big lie about the Department of Education masks the real goal of attacking the vulnerable, the goal of breaking a system that supports low-income school districts and provides resources to support students with disabilities. On top of that, the Department of Education administers the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, which is vital to students receiving federal aid for their education and relied on by thousands of Cornell students. It also oversees student loans for millions of American college graduates. As an institution whose motto is “any person, any study,” Cornell cannot remain silent in the face of these attacks on public education and financial aid.
Contrary to what many assume, the Department of Education does not control our schools, nor does it administer anywhere near a majority of our nation’s funding for public education. There is no liberal conspiracy to take away state control over education, and there never has been. The Department of Education mainly exists to administer two programs: Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, commonly referred to as IDEA. Title I provides grants to low-income school districts, while IDEA gives school districts funding to serve students with disabilities. These programs are already underfunded, and despite outward attempts by some Republicans to cut their funding, the programs have bipartisan support.
Title I and IDEA are not radical; they are not leftist, nor are they federal control over our public education. They are part of a commitment to providing every American child with an opportunity to succeed. Other than the 8 percent or so of education funding that comes from these programs, states can do almost anything they want with their schools.
So, the question becomes: Why does the Administration want to cut the Department of Education? The easy answer — the answer I think many Democrats assume — is that the Trump Administration does not care about low-income schools or children with disabilities. There is certainly an element of this; at the very least, the Trump administration does not care enough about these factors. But the truth is that this attack continues a longer fight against public education and the vision it represents. The weakening of our public schools serves a greater purpose for Trump’s allies: the long-held goal of destroying public education as we know it.
What Trump and his allies really want is to replace public education, either mostly or entirely, with a system of private education subsidized by school vouchers. This is why Project 2025 proposed making Title I and IDEA funding state-administered: The goal is to redirect funds that are supposed to go to vulnerable communities in our public education system towards families sending their children to private schools. The bottom line for the anti-public education grifters who are close to Trump, the DeVoses and McMahons of the world, is that they want to strip our public schools of as much funding as possible to shift our education system from public to private, from a mandate to educate everyone to a model of education as a business.
These people’s vision of education will not be a benefit for the vast majority of American families or for society at large. Most funding from school voucher programs has gone to families already sending their kids to private schools, while public school students have been left behind. Even worse are the effects in rural communities that lack private school options, where students face additional barriers in even getting to a private school (so much for “school choice”). At the end of the day, this comes down to a simple proposition: Will American education serve everyone or just the wealthy and their allies?
On top of its effect on public education, closing the Department of Education could have catastrophic effects on the billions of dollars in student aid that the Department oversees. Thousands of Cornell students, and millions around the country, could be impacted by the closure of the Department of Education. We’ve already seen what can happen when there is a hiccup in FAFSA processing, so what is to happen when the entire Department of Education is in disarray? Is the shell of what was once there, struggling to administer all of its programs, going to help students apply for aid, manage their loans and find a way to attend college? The move towards ending the Department of Education threatens higher education’s ability to accommodate students and Cornell’s commitment to meeting student need.
So what should Cornell do? There are three things: First, Cornell needs to make a statement opposing attacks on public education that weaken every institution of higher education in this country. Second, Cornell needs to commit to providing every student with adequate and timely estimates of financial aid, regardless of how that process ends up looking. And third, Cornell needs to commit to supporting Ithaca public schools in the face of potential funding shortfalls. Cornell has a part to play in saving our public schools, and we have to hold them accountable to that.
Max Ehrlich ’26 is a Junior in the ILR School. He worked last summer for the American Federation of Teachers and currently writes for the Cornell Undergraduate Law and Society Review. He can be reached at mae222@cornell.edu.
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