Trump wants to abolish the Department of Education. Is Michigan ready?

• Former President Donald Trump says he wants to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education
• Michigan experts says eliminating the department comes with significant challenges and possible consequences
• The department administers college loans and investigates allegations of civil rights violations, among other things

DETROIT — Donald Trump is promising to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education if he is reelected, and former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is on board with closing the department she led for four years. 

But with Michigan students continuing to struggle on national and state assessments, "the solution is not that simple," according to Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers, a Trump-endorsed Republican whose campaign said he does not support abolishing the department. 

"Eliminating the Department of Education does not solve the crisis we are seeing today in public schools across the country," Rogers told Bridge Michigan in a statement. 

U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat running against Rogers, also opposes eliminating the Department of Education, according to her campaign. 

Those positions from Michigan’s leading candidates for U.S. Senate point to the challenges Trump would face if he attempts to eliminate the department, which is responsible for distributing school funding, administering federal student loan programs and enforcing students’ civil rights protections.

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Closing the department or shifting core functions to other areas of the federal government would require approval in Congress, where legislation to “terminate” the department has been repeatedly introduced but has failed to advance. 

Still, Trump has made clear he’ll try to eliminate the DOE, which then-President Ronald Reagan first proposed in 1982.The official Republican Party platform that Trump backed in July, as adopted by national convention delegates, directs GOP lawmakers to aid him.

"We are going to close the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. and send it back to the states, where it belongs, and let the states run our educational system as it should be run," the platform states. 

Trump has not said whether he would move DOE functions to other departments or simply eliminate them. 

But Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint that Trump has disavowed, presents a more concrete plan. It proposes to shift civil rights investigations to the Department of Justice and convert Title I funding for high-poverty schools to vouchers before phasing them out, among other things. 

“Giving more control back to state and local governments, and expanding school choice, would improve education outcomes for all Americans, especially underprivileged communities," the Project 2025 website states. 

Those proposals are "gimmicks” from people intent on undermining the traditional public education model by creating a “boogeyman,” said Miguel Cardona, the current U.S. Education Secretary under President Joe Biden.

“Whether it's (critical race theory) or masks or banned books or transphobia, there's an attempt to disrupt public education so that they could push their private models," Cardona told reporters during a recent event in Detroit.

"You know, a lot of states are paying private school vouchers with public education dollars. I think this is all very systematic in the development and I think it's silly.” 

Michigan is no stranger to debates about school choice. DeVos, who served as Education Secretary under Trump, is a national advocate for charter schools. She has twice led failed initiatives to bring school vouchers to Michigan but has succeeded in some other states. 

The role of local and state government in K-12 education

Advocates for eliminating the federal Department of Education contend that removing bureaucracy would empower states like Michigan to make more decisions on their own.

“We’re going to end education coming out of Washington, D.C.,” Trump said in a campaign video.  “We’re going to close it up – all those buildings all over the place and yeah, people that in many cases hate our children. We’re going to send it all back to the states.”

The federal government in past years has mandated broad education reforms through programs like No Child Left Behind and used funding to incentivize adoption of curriculum standards like Common Core. 

But most education policy and funding decisions are already decided at the local and state level. Michigan school districts are free to choose which curriculum they use. Federal funding will cover roughly 11 percent of Michigan's $20.6 billion in planned School Aid spending next year. 

When Michigan schools recently received an extra $5.6 billion in pandemic relief funds, they had wide latitude on how they could spend that money. The American Rescue Plan Act narrowly passed Congress in 2021, but “100% of the students in this country benefited from it,” Cardona said last week in Detroit. 

Michigan state Superintendent Michael Rice said in a statement the idea of eliminating the federal department “is an unserious idea that fails to recognize the U.S. Department of Education’s role. States and local school districts are largely responsible for public education in the country.” 

“The U.S. Department of Education distributes federal education dollars, provides guidance associated with these funds and on best education practices, and advocates for and supports public education and all groups of children. One doesn’t have to agree with every action of the department to recognize the department’s value.”

Recent state assessments show third-grade reading proficiency at an all-time low in Michigan. But education advocates contend that eliminating federal funding could make the situation even worse. 

Rogers, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate, said he would “work with anyone to raise teachers salaries and implement reading reclamation programs that improve students’ ability to read.” 

But he also alleged that the Department of Education has been “corrupted by the far left who bent their knee to unnecessary COVID lockdowns and mask mandates.”

Protecting students with disabilities

Among other things, the Department of Education provides special funding for students with disabilities and investigates alleged civil rights complaints in education settings.

How those dollars and investigations would be handled if the DOE is eliminated would have ramifications for the nearly 218,000 Michigan students who received special education services during the 2023-2024 school year.

Students with disabilities have protections under federal law including the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Without enforcement by the federal education department, “there will be zero accountability for those laws,” said Marcie Lipsitt, a longtime advocate for students with disabilities.

“You’d have no hen guarding the hen house,” she said. “Who would be monitoring states to ensure compliance? Nobody. It would be a ghost town.”  

Lipsitt has navigated the federal civil rights complaint system before. 

A complaint she filed in 2021 prompted an investigation and recent determination that the Michigan Department of Education gave incomplete and misleading information on how students with disabilities could qualify for compensatory services following COVID-19 pandemic school closures. MDE has denied wrongdoing and is urging an administrative law judge to dismiss claims. Trump has not said how or if the federal government would monitor education-related civil rights complaints if he eliminates the department. 

Project 2025, the conservative policy agenda led by the Heritage Foundation, calls for moving the Office for Civil Rights to the Department of Justice and moving oversight of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Protecting transgender students 

Republicans argue the administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have misapplied civil rights protections by expanding Title IX education protections against sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity. 

The LGBTQ anti-discrimination policy has been on hold in some states because of ongoing litigation. Among other things, Republican attorneys general have challenged provisions that would require schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. 

Rogers, the Republican candidate for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat, has promised to support legislation rolling back those protections. “We’re going to fix Title IX,” he said in an August event with DeVos. 

Slotkin, the Democratic candidate, has reportedly backed the anti-discrimination protections. She previously criticized DeVos for giving new rights to students accused of sexual harassment or assault at college campuses or K-12 schools. 

“Slotkin is focused on strengthening Michigan’s education system by supporting teachers and students,” spokesperson Antoine Givens said in a statement.

Financial aid and loan forgiveness

The U.S. Department of Education also plays a major role in distributing financial aid to college students and under Biden has also been attempting to forgive student loan debt. 

Those loan relief efforts have largely been tied up in court after Biden attempted to bypass Congress, where Republicans have generally opposed the proposals as unfair to taxpayers who didn't take out any college loans. 

The department’s recent botched rollout of a new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) system frustrated families and could provide an extra push for those attempting to eliminate the DOE, said Mia Murphy, chief policy officer at the Michigan Association of State Universities.

“I think the rollout this year has to go better, or else things will not be tenable either way,” Murphy said. 

Several Michigan scholarships and financial aid programs interact with federal programs, meaning elimination or disruptions at the federal level could have a ripple effect on the state. 

For example, public school employees can qualify for the state to pay their monthly student loan payments if those employees are on track to get their loans forgiven after a certain amount of years of public service. For college students, how much they receive in state scholarships or aid depends on what students submit on the FAFSA.

“There is a lot of alignment between federal financial aid and state financial aid programs all around the country,” Murphy said. “I don't think Michigan is really an outlier in any particular way at this point, and so it would be a just unbelievable disruption.”