President Donald Trump was given the green light to gut the Department of Education after the Supreme Court ruled to allow the administration’s mass firings that will significantly hobble the agency.
The Education Department has long been a target for conservatives who want to see it abolished. An executive order Trump signed in March directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.”
While the department cannot be entirely shuttered without approval from Congress, which the White House and education Secretary Linda McMahon have acknowledged, the decision does authorize the administration’s attempts at serious downsizing. McMahon fired 1,300 workers in March, while another 572 employees accepted buyouts, resulting in a slash in workforce of nearly 50%.
Here’s what to know about the department as the Trump administration moves forward with efforts to dismantle it.
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What does the Department of Education do?
The department, established as a Cabinet-level agency by Congress in 1979, manages federal loans and financial aid for college, administers billions of dollars in grants for K-12 schools, records student achievement and enrollment and enforces civil rights laws and safety in schools, among other duties. They include:
Ensuring K-12 schools comply with federal laws in order to receive funding (federal money makes up approximately a tenth of public school funding). Among other things, those laws protect students and teachers from discrimination and guarantee education for those with disabilities.
Overseeing the country’s colleges and universities, most of which receive federal funding, by ensuring they are in compliance with federal statues to ensure equal educational opportunity for students, “regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, disability or age,” the Department says.
Helping students afford college through administering student aid, loans and grants.
Tracking education outcomes to determine where the most support is needed for students.
The Department says its elementary and secondary programs annually serve nearly 18,200 school districts and over 50 million students among roughly 98,000 public schools and 32,000 private schools. Its programs also provide grant, loan, and work-study assistance to more than 12 million postsecondary students, according to the Department website.
What does the Department of Education fund?
Despite claims to the contrary by proponents of closing the Department, including the Trump administration, K-12 curricula is largely under the purview of local governments. More than 90% of K-12 funding comes from non-federal sources, such as state and local governments and private organizations.
According to USA Spending, the Education Department received $241.66 billion in budgetary resources in the 2024 fiscal year − just 2% of the entire federal budget.
The funding is divided further into 10 subcomponents within the agency, but the vast majority of it goes to just one: the Office of Federal Student Aid, which received $179.65 billion in 2024.
How big is the Education Department?
At the start of the Trump administration, the department had a little over 4,000 employees. The layoffs and buyouts earlier this year leave staffing at half that number, the Department said in a March statement.
While the department has a relatively high discretionary spending budget, it has the smallest staff of the 15 Cabinet agencies, the website states.
Contributing: Kinsey Crowley and Zac Anderson, USA TODAY.
Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is the Education Department? What does it do? What to know
