“Am I still going to be able to pay for college?” “How is this going to affect my major?” “Will I still be able to apply for student aid?” These are the concerned questions of several students across the campus of Wayne State College.
On March 20, President Trump signed an order calling for the dismantling of the Department of Education. This was done under the argument that the federal office hasn’t improved student outcomes and is unnecessary in a country where state governments control the funding and hiring in education. The department’s dismantling is a consequence of a right-wing agenda calling for the termination of the Department of Education.
The Department of Education has been responsible for oversight, enforcing discrimination laws, and handling and distributing aid money for schools with low-income students and students with disabilities. In addition to this, the department manages all federal student aid.
With the Department of Education being slowly whittled down, other government departments and agencies are now being tasked with the responsibility of managing those jobs.
“Some things will be transferred back to the states, as far as responsibilities are concerned.” Sara Walsh, an instructor at Wayne said, “But then other things will be shifted to a different federal area.”
For example, the Department of Education has historically managed special education, but that responsibility may be handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services. Additionally, the Small Business Administration is now tasked with handling the $1.6 trillion formerly managed by the department. Additionally, there has been discussion of setting up a “quasi-private” bank to administer loans.
As far as curriculum or graduation requirements are concerned, the Department of Education breaking down would have little to no effect on the curriculum at Wayne State.
“At the federal level, the graduation requirements are not regulated… that is left up to the states,” Dean of the School of Education and Behavioral Sciences Kym Acuña said. “The Department of Education going away in and of itself would not impact the curriculum because they’re not the ones who regulate the curriculum.”
If anything, the majority of these changes will affect grades K-12.
“If the rights go back to the states I think there would be more local control dictating if changes need to be changed or not, but those would mostly affect K-12.” Walsh said. “Things like special education, federal funding, and DEI were already mostly handled by schools at the state level, and if the Department of Education were to fizzle out entirely, colleges would largely be unaffected.”
The biggest issue to come out of the dissolving of the Department of Education is undeniably the funding formerly monitored by the department now changing hands.
“Depending on how effectively they handle the Pell Grant and student loan processes, that is going to impact students’ ability to pay for school,” Acuña said. “The majority of funding for non-research institutions comes from tuition or state funding… If your students can’t access the school because of funding, there would have to be cuts.”
In other words, if Federal Student Aid isn’t handled properly or misused now that the Department of Education is no longer servicing it, students will be unable to afford their tuition and colleges will have to make cuts to keep themselves afloat.
There’s a general air of uncertainty regarding the dismantling of the Department of Education, however, outside of a vote from Congress, the department won’t be going away any time soon. Responsibilities may be shifted around a bit but, for the most part, Wayne State College will be unchanged by these developments.
“People who work in education, whether you’re a K-12 education or higher ed student, we’re paying very careful attention to what is going on nationally and how that impacts the state Department of Education,” Acuña said. “If those responsibilities are trickled down and left to the states, it’ll be interesting to see what happens there. So that’s what we’re paying attention to.”
For the time being, Wayne State students should rest easy knowing that the Department of Education is not fully dismantled. While things like Federal Student Aid are now being handled by other departments, there have been very few impacts on the day-to-day lives of college students.
There exists the possibility that student aid will be handled differently in the future, but concerns of graduation requirements and curriculum being changed are now put to rest.