All districts — As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to retake the Oval Office on Jan. 20, he’s promised to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, the federal agency that funds special education and provides support for low-income schools, instruction and school meals.
Despite that vow, Dan Behm, executive director of Education Advocates of West Michigan, isn’t jumping to conclusions when it comes to what will happen next in terms of the U.S. DOE’s future. Dismantling a federal department is easier said than done, he said, and abolishing it would require a supermajority of 60 senators to vote to do so.
Even so, there could be significant changes in policy ahead, said Behm, former superintendent of Forest Hills Public Schools who’s served more than 30 years in education.
“It’s not something that can be done through executive order,” Behm said.
“I don’t think there would be 60 senators to say ‘Let’s get rid of (help to schools with) rural and deep poverty. Could we see states being asked to do more in terms of enforcement? Yeah, it’s possible. Can there be conditions placed on the funds that schools receive (from the feds)? Yes. Could it be something related to a special education service? Yes.”
Education Advocates of West Michigan is a collaborative of Kent, Muskegon and Ottawa Area ISDs that advocates for a student-centered budget and policy agenda. It works for fuller state funding, legislative policy reform and ensuring students are college- and career-ready.
Much of the organization’s mission and priorities involve items that fall under the federal Department of Education umbrella, such as English-language learners, Head Start initiatives, the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act and ensuring low-income schools and students are equally supported.
‘It’s sort of Civics 101 that we should all take a deep breath and not be consumed by bills that are introduced for partisan grandstanding.’
— Dan Behm, executive director of Education Advocates of West Michigan
Though the vast majority of K-12 education spending comes from the states, the federal government funds about 8 cents of every dollar spent, and that funding is important, Behm said. (See the U.S. Department of Education’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Summary here.)
“I think we can expect changes in the administration and interpretation of rules that are out there. I think we can expect changes in some of the funding, but, again, that is going to be worked out between both political parties,” Behm said. “It’s going to require both Republicans and Democrats to come to agreement on how to spend taxpayer money when it comes to the 8% support of K-12 education (provided) at the federal level.”
Behm cited President George Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 as an example of funding conditions being enacted. “But those conditions would be nested in the programs funded and served by federal dollars,” he pointed out. “So you’re not going to see something where they put conditions on special education and have those conditions apply to books in a media center or extracurricular athletics. Those things aren’t related to the program and service being funded.”
A Look at the Numbers
When you’re talking about running a school district, 8% of an overall budget is a significant amount, said Kent ISD Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services Kevin Philipps.
“You think of 8% and that doesn’t sound big, but when you’re working off local district budgets that probably don’t have an 8% cushion that they are putting into their (savings) every year,” that can have a big impact, he said.
As far as money from the U.S. DOE goes, Kent ISD’s $425 million budget is made up of about $45 million in federal funds.
“A good chunk of that we are passing through to local districts,” Philipps said.
The majority — $35 million — is special education funding through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, for which districts receive about $1,200 in funding for every student who receives special education services. That money is allocated by Kent ISD to the local districts and Kent ISD Special Ed Student Programs.
Schools are mandated to fund special education, so a loss in IDEA funds would mean that money would come out of state dollars and hurt an already underfunded area of education, Philipps said.
“The IDEA Act has never been funded to the level that the act was originally intended to,” he noted. “The original intent was to provide 40 percent of the cost of special education for a district. They’ve never gotten to that level.
“Even though the state has done a lot to increase special education funding, the districts still aren’t fully funded on special ed, so they are using general fund dollars to subsidize (special) education. It’s a lot smaller than it was five years ago, but it’s still there.”
Money for High-need Districts
The remaining federal money Kent ISD received for this school year includes the Title 1 Regional Assistance Grant, which is used to provide services to districts with higher needs, and the Health Resource Advocate Grant, which provides over $1 million spread out to local districts to help with nursing services.
Also, about $2 million went to the West Michigan Teacher Collaborative and Great Start to Quality.
For individual school districts, the biggest pot of federal money for schools, outside of special education, is Title 1, at-risk funding based on federal poverty statistics to determine how much each district gets. Grand Rapids Public Schools received more than $10 million in Title I funds for this school year, according to information from the State of Michigan.
Nationally, the U.S. DOE provided $18.6 billion in Title I funding this school year.
Districts also receive federal money in Title II dollars to support instruction through professional development; Title III or English-language learner instruction; and Title IV to support student enrichment in areas such as STEM.
Finally, the National School Lunch Program program subsidizes and supports breakfast and lunch for about 7.1 million children nationwide. In Michigan all students receive free school meals, thanks to a combination of federal reimbursements for meals served and payments from the State of Michigan.
“If all 8 percent was lost, obviously that’s going to be a significant hit financially, and if you have to eliminate the services that go along with it you are looking at a lot of extra services for students in need: extra parapros, specific ELL instructors,” Philipps said.
A Bit of History
Behm offered context about what role the U.S. DOE plays in everyday school district operations. He said it would be most helpful to remember how long K-12 schools have been around in the U.S. versus how long the department has existed.
“We have had K-12 schools far, far longer than we have had a Department of Education,” Behm pointed out. “And historically and currently, the federal government has had a very limited role when it comes to K-12 education. Our founding fathers and federal lawmakers have been very clear that they see the work of K-12 education as being a primary responsibility of the states.
“And I don’t see that changing with a new administration.”
The first public school in the US opened in 1635. Though the original 1800s version of the U.S. DOE lasted only about a year, the modern version that we know today was established about a century later, under the late President Jimmy Carter just 45 years ago. Though President Ronald Reagan proposed eliminating the department less than two years after it was formed, in 1979, the move was not supported by Congress.
Trump recently picked Linda McMahon to lead the department. Co-founder and former CEO of the WWE professional wrestling franchise with her husband Vince McMahon, Linda McMahon is known as an advocate for parents’ rights and school choice.
For now, Behm said, he remains focused on the mission of his organization. He encourages others to remember that “Anyone (member of Congress) can put forth a bill that would incite uncertainty or even give people trepidation. But that doesn’t mean that bill becomes law. We see the vast majority of bills introduced at both the state and federal level never make it to that executive’s desk.
“It’s sort of Civics 101 that we should all take a deep breath and not be consumed by bills that are introduced for partisan grandstanding. That has gone on for decades and it will continue. I’m not overly concerned.”
So what does Behm think is possible, or even probable? “I think we can expect an increase in uncertainty and maybe a little bit of chaotic maneuvering around some of these rules, and around some of the legislative proposals that anyone can put forth,” he said.
Reporter Morgan Jarema contributed to this article.
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