President Donald Trump announced on March 21 that two primary functions of the Department of Education will be moved to other federal agencies.
Student loan processing will be moved to the Small Business Administration (SBA), and the oversight of funding and some programming for students with special needs will be moved to the Department of Health and Human Services.
This announcement comes less than 24 hours after Trump signed an executive order calling for the agency’s partial elimination while preserving funding and oversight for Pell grants, special education, and Title I funding for low-income students.
“Those two elements will be taken out of the Department of Education, and then all we have to do is get the students to get guidance from the people that love them and cherish them—including their parents, by the way, who will be totally involved in their education, along with the boards (of education) and the governors and the states,” Trump said this morning.
Trump said these steps will save taxpayers a significant amount of money while improving public education in all states.
“It’s going to be a great situation,” he said.
Trump noted on March 20 that special education funding and oversight in its current form would not be affected by his executive order, though in remarks the following day he said that “special needs and all the nutrition programs” will be moved to Health and Human Services.
Either way, the federal Individuals with Disabilities Act, which predates the Department of Education’s creation in 1979, requires public schools to accommodate special needs of students with physical, mental, and emotional impairments, and the federal government is tasked with its enforcement, according to the Department of Education’s website.
The federal and state governments split most of the costs for special education, which can make up a large chunk of public school budgets because individualized learning plans are required for special needs students. For many students, that includes assessments and a team of case workers and specialized teachers, depending on their disability.
It’s not uncommon for schools to assign a full-time employee to one special needs student who is mainstreamed into regular classes, largely for the purpose of minimizing disruptions to the other students.
During recent congressional hearings pertaining to K–12 education reform, school choice advocates criticized the current state of special education, noting that the system is riddled with lawsuits between parents seeking assessments and individualized learning plans and school administrators worried about staff and funding limitations.
Federal student loans, meanwhile, are expected to remain in forbearance through the end of the year under a prior notification from the Department of Education.
Interest will not accrue until after the Trump administration outlines new requirements for repayment. The SBA will be expected to announce changes from former President Joe Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education program in the weeks ahead.
