WE OPPOSE DISMANTLING THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Children’s Alliance strongly opposes the drastic cuts and intentional weakening of the United States Department of Education. Last week’s executive order directing Secretary McMahon to dismantle the United States Department of Education will result in significant harm to children across the country, including in Washington state. The Department of Education is instrumental to many educational investments, including: 

• Protecting the educational rights of children with disabilities, including over 13,000 Washington babies and toddlers through both early intervention (ages birth to 3 years) and approximately 143,000 school-aged children through special education (ages 3-22 years) 

• Enforcing nondiscrimination policy through the Office of Civil Rights, which will become more difficult as the Seattle office contends with half of its peer regional offices being closed and their staff terminated 

• Dispersing grants that provide critical resources for educators to serve their communities. Without including student loans, the Department of Education funds approximately $1.5 billion annually for Washington education programs and grants. 

• Collecting standardized, disaggregated data to measure educational outcomes and identify disparities. Partnerships with federal researchers help to break down data siloes to maximize impact, and Department of Education grants help support Washington’s Education Research and Data Center. 

• Providing infrastructure support and funding for more than 20,000 of Washington’s youngest learners to attend Head Start early learning programs 

• Providing technical assistance and $268.45 million in Title I grant funding to one-third of Washington’s public schools and 350,000 students This disproportionately affects communities of color and students in rural areas. 

• Ensuring that public servants in education, public health, and other sectors can continue serving their communities through reliable distribution of collegiate student loans and affordable repayment options. Financial aid is critical to college access; over one-third of Washington’s postsecondary students report housing and/or food insecurity. To date, over 19,000 of Washington’s public servants have accessed loan forgiveness through Public Student Loan Forgiveness. 

Contrary to the executive order’s justification, states already have broad control of their curriculum and educational programs. The unwinding of the United States Department of Education will only create funding gaps, disparate access to education data and technical resources, and uneven enforcement of student educational rights. We urge the United States Federal Government to reinstate staffing and program authority to the Department of Education immediately. 

The President does not have legal authority to override Congressional mandates that established and maintain the Department of Education and its responsibilities. Washington's Attorney General has joined 20 other states to challenge the drastic reductions in force to the Department, arguing that cutting about half of the Department's staff will render it unable to realistically fulfill its legal obligations to America's students and teachers.