Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) launched an investigation Thursday to look at President Donald Trump’s dismantling of the Department of Education and the effects it will have.
Warren launched her “Save Our Schools Campaign” earlier this month, days after Trump signed an executive order to take “all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.” The Massachusetts Democrat seeks to look into the “harm” these executive orders related to the ED will have on students, families, and teachers. The senator’s state ranks at the top in education in almost every category, according to the Nation’s Report Card.
“Americans rely on [the Department of Education] to fund a range of critical services such as financial aid to pay for college, special education, afterschool programs, and more. The Department is also responsible for protecting students from civil rights violations, fraudulent for-profit colleges, and predatory student loan servicers,” Warren wrote in the press release.
“Accordingly, I request your assistance in understanding whether the Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department will jeopardize students’ access to affordable, accessible, and high-quality public education,” she continued.
Trump has been pushing for the closure of the Department of Education for some time now. The president pushed this initiative throughout his campaign, aiming to give the power back to the states, while terminating diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
“I will close the Department of Education and move education back to the states where it belongs,” he said during his campaign.
Since taking office, Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon have fired nearly half of the department’s employees. Warren wrote that the department was understaffed before the firings took place.
“President Trump believes that the bureaucracy in Washington should be abolished so that we can return education to the states, where it belongs. I wholeheartedly support and agree with this mission,” McMahon wrote in response to Warren’s questions for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions nomination hearing.
This is just one of the administration’s efforts to slash federal spending and dismantle federal agencies. Each department has gone through its own wave of layoffs and dismantling. This is just one of the many efforts that Trump has targeted at education, with the most recent targeting college accreditors, requiring colleges to disclose some foreign gifts and contracts, while also outlining changes for K-12 schools. This is part of its push to refocus the education system.
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A spokeswoman for the Department of Education pushed back on Warren’s claims.
“If Senator Warren was truly interested in fighting for parents, students, and teachers as she claims, where was her outrage over this year’s dismal math and reading scores? Don’t get it twisted. She is fighting President Trump’s education agenda for one reason: to protect the bloated bureaucracy that has consistently failed our nation’s students,” Savannah Newhouse, Education Department spokeswoman, told the Washington Examiner. “By returning education authority to the states, President Trump and Secretary McMahon will help every American child — including those in public schools — to have the best shot at a quality education.”
Warren wrote 12 letters to leading organizations representing schools requesting information on the impacts of the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the department. Those include the American Council on Education, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Parents Union, National Education Association, American Federation of Teachers, Student Borrower Protection Center, Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, National Center for Youth Law, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Women’s Law Center, Institute for Higher Education Policy, and the Association for Institutional Research.
“These actions risk major interruptions and delays in key services that students and families rely on,” Warren wrote.
