The fate of the US Department of Education (ED), first formed in 1979 and receiving on-and-off criticism in presidential campaigns since then, is now perhaps at its most uncertain stage after the re-election of Donald Trump to the presidency. The president-elect has made clear his disdain for this department, vowing on the campaign trail to have it dissolved, a promise key supporters such as Elon Musk have cheered. In all, Trump’s second term vis-a-vis education may end up having the most significant impact on college students or alumni who are still paying off student loans.
Despite Trump’s criticisms, this department — which oversees the Federal Student Aid office providing federal student loans to college attendees, along with supplemental funding programs for high-poverty K-12 schools and special education opportunities across the country — will take more than executive fiat to be abolished. Congress would also need to approve such a move, which is an unlikely outcome in the current political environment: The Senate filibuster, which requires at least 60 out of 100 senators to pass most legislation, has so far survived Democratic attempts to eliminate it, and a sizable number of Republicans continue to vote against abolishing the ED, as 60 House Republicans did in 2023, siding with all voting Democrats on the matter.
Nevertheless, the Department of Education is likely to look different than it has under the Biden administration and current Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. Student loan forgiveness was a major part of Biden’s 2020 campaign, and he has followed through by providing billions of dollars of relief to millions of borrowers. However, courts stymied the administration’s most ambitious relief plans, which Trump decried as “very, very unfair to the millions and millions of people who have paid their debt through hard work.” While Trump waived interest and paused payments at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he has the power to scrap Biden’s forgiveness plans and more strictly enforce repayments from borrowers.
Another area where presidents have exerted much power is in the writing and enforcement of Title IX policy. Originally passed in 1972, Title IX seeks to protect college students from discrimination on the basis of sex but has varied greatly in recent years depending on whether a Democrat or Republican is living in the White House. In Trump’s first term, critics accused the rules of making it difficult for victims of sexual assault or harassment to receive justice; Biden tried to undo these rules while also expanding the scope of Title IX to cover discrimination over gender orientation, which has been subject to numerous court challenges. Trump, in particular, has criticized Biden’s approach and is likely to reinstate the set of rules he favored while in office.
While Trump has also promised to block funding to schools that teach topics he sees as “woke,” like critical race theory, or that allow participation of transgender students in school sports, it is difficult to foresee the specifics of such a scenario playing out. For one, states provide a majority of the funding to K-12 schools and set standards (none of which include the teaching of critical race theory, for instance). Additionally, if the Department of Education were indeed eliminated, the Trump administration would struggle to have a platform to recommend education policy to the states and collect educational data through programs like the Nation’s Report Card tests. This was one reason for the enactment of an independent department, which used to be grouped with what is now the Department of Health and Human Services.
On Tuesday, Trump announced his nomination of Linda McMahon for Education Secretary. McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, and has since been a major donor to Trump’s campaigns. She led a conservative think tank called the America First Policy Institute, which has pushed for stopping schools from “promoting inaccurate and unpatriotic concepts,” and expanding voucher programs that help families afford private or charter school – the latter was a hot topic in Trump’s first term when Betsy DeVos served as the department secretary. McMahon has previously served as chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, a company started by her husband, Vince McMahon, and having long standing connections with Trump. She served on the Connecticut State Board of Education from 2009-10.
This nomination is pending confirmation, either through Senate hearings once the new Senate begins its term next year, or through the more controversial process of recess appointments, which Trump has floated as a way to streamline the confirmation process. So far, Trump has made several promises to make huge changes to the Education Department, so it is important to stay updated and make plans to optimize your student loan repayments.
