Mary Kalantzis, Education Policy, Organization & Leadership professor and former dean

“The biggest impact will be the funding it provides for special education and financial support for higher education fees for students from low-income families. 

The department is also the principal source of funding for educational research and innovation, which is typically not funded at the state level."

Jon Hale, Education Policy, Organization & Leadership professor

“I would be most fearful of removing a check on local districts that have allowed violent ideologies and an untruthful curriculum to shape the schooling experiences of children and youth in the United States.

Without the U.S. Department of Education, we lose a mechanism to check the rise of extremist groups like Moms for Liberty, who have banned books that include all children and teach the hard histories of enslavement and settler colonialism that must be taught.

Dissolving the U.S. Department of Education also furthers the privatization of schools and threatens our publicly funded and governed public school system, which at one point in time our nation collectively viewed as the foundation of democracy.”

Susan Zola, Ph.D. '97 EPSY,  former superintendent of Champaign Unit 4 Schools

“Dismantling the Department of Education could impact IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), overseen by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

This office provides protections and funds special education services for students with disabilities. Some of our most vulnerable students, who can often get lost in a school setting.

Without an individual support plan and the services that are currently required based on federal protections, these students and their families may feel real and significant consequences.”

Paul Bruno, Education Policy, Organization & Leadership assistant professor

“Whether the new administration follows through on dissolving the Department of Education probably matters less than what that tells us about their priorities, values and commitments.

In principle, other federal agencies could do most or all of what the Department of Education does. But what I’d worry most about is that that would signal that the administration is not committed to making sure that disadvantaged students get the supports and protections that the Department of Education currently provides.

So a big concern I’d have is whether the federal government stops enforcing anti-discrimination rules, or tries to use those rules to their own political advantage.

I’d also be worried about whether the federal government continues collecting the education data so many stakeholders use to do research and to monitor educational effectiveness and equity.”

Read the full story originally published by the News-Gazette ...