Trump's Trials - What massive cuts to the Department of Education mean for schools and students

Episode Date: July 16, 2025

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled to allow the Trump administration to resume its efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. What will that mean to schools, students and families?Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

I'm Scott Detro and this is Trump's Terms from NPR. We're going to be doing all sorts of things nobody ever thought was even possible. President Trump has brought back strength to the White House. We can't just ignore the president's desires. This will be an entirely different country in a short period of time. Every episode we bring you one of NPR's latest stories about the 47th president and how he is trying to remake the federal government. Today's story starts right after this.

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There's also absolute advantage, aggregate demand, aggregate supply, and this is just the ace. Oh, animal spirits. That's a pretty good one. Planet Money from NPR. We help you translate the economy so you can understand the world wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Steve Inskeep. Next, we report on the implications of a plan to lay off almost 1,400 staffers at the U.S. Department of Education. As we've been reporting, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the fire rings this week.

The conservative majority overruled the lower court and made a ruling in favor of the Trump administration giving no reasons for that choice. Now the layoffs can go ahead. NPR's Sequoia Carrillo looks at what's at stake. Some Republicans have been calling for the dissolution of the Education Department since its creation in 1979. People have wanted to do this for many, many years, for many, many decades. And I don't know, no president ever got around to doing it, but I'm getting around to doing

it so thank you very much. President Trump talked about that history while signing his executive order to dissolve the department earlier this year. Here's then-candidate Ronald Reagan on PBS in 1980. I would like to dissolve the $10 billion national department of education created by President Carter and turn schools back to the local school districts where we built the greatest public school system the world has ever seen. Giving power back to the states is a big political talking point, but in reality,

the Department of Education has never had the power to decide what is and isn't taught in schools. Now, as it faces disbandment, it raises the question, what exactly does the Education Department do? The department is relatively small, but it does some pretty big jobs. The Department of Education isn't some wasteful bureaucracy. Keri Rodriguez, president of the National Parents Union, is concerned about who will do them. It's how students access financial aid. It's how civil rights are protected in schools. It's how students with disabilities get the services they're legally entitled to receive. It's also how Title I funds those reserved to help students from low income families get to communities in need.

And the education department also keeps tabs on student achievement by analyzing national test scores and surveying colleges to get accurate graduation at admissions rates. In 2024, it had more than 4,000 employees. Now with the renewed layoffs combined with employees who resigned or retired this year, the department stands to be roughly half the size it was last year. So while we don't know yet exactly how this will affect schools, an NPR investigation found that layoffs disproportionately targeted the Office for Federal Student Aid, the Office

for Civil Rights, and education research teams. So those are the areas most likely to be impacted. Whether Trump's moves to dismantle the department are lawful, that's still being debated in lower courts. But the Supreme Court's ruling is a serious blow to the states and school districts that worry the department will be unsalvageable by the time a final ruling comes through.

Sequoia Carrillo, NPR News. Before we wrap up, a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news, with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks as always to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detro. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR. Hey, everybody. It's Ian from How to Do Everything.

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