How will Trump’s push to dismantle the Department of Education affect Vermont?

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education.

What exactly that means for the country — and Vermont — is an open question. 

The U.S. Congress created the Department of Education, and its dissolution requires the body’s approval. The courts have blocked or limited Trump’s attempts to shutter other offices in the federal government like the U.S. Agency for International Development. 

But the president’s declarations have had immediate impact, and about half of the Department of Education’s employees are already on their way out either through voluntary resignations or cuts, NPR reported. The downsizing has hit the department’s Office for Civil Rights particularly hard. 

A White House spokesperson told reporters Thursday the Department of Education would retain some responsibilities, including overseeing federal student loans. 

More than 78,000 Vermonters have student loan debt totalling nearly $3 billion, Vermont Public reported last year. Undergraduates at UVM receive almost $28 million in federal student loans, according to the most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics, and Vermont State University students receive almost $17 million. 

Last week, Anne Bordonaro, who leads the Vermont Agency of Education’s work on federal education programs, told lawmakers that the core federally funded education initiatives should escape “significant cuts” until at least the 2026-2027 school year. 

Updated at 6:44 p.m.

In fiscal year 2024, the Agency of Education received $493 million in federal funds, more than 90% of which it passed on as grants. Through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the state receives more than $68 million annually, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act provides another $37.5 million for Vermont’s schools, Bordonaro said, among other streams of federal dollars. 

But Bordonaro did not address how changes in Washington could impact state-level positions. More than 40% of the Agency of Education’s staff members — 73 employees— were paid using federal funds in fiscal year 2024, according to the agency’s annual budget book. 

Vermont has already lost some education-related funds, including $1.7 million in USDA grants that in part supported schools’ local food purchasing. 

In a brief email, Lindsey Hedges, an Agency of Education spokesperson, said Thursday that the agency expected to get “some additional information from our federal partners later today.”

The chairs of Vermont’s education committees, Sen. Seth Bongartz, D-Bennington, and Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall, both said they had not received communications from the Agency of Education on Thursday regarding the executive order.

U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., spent time in the statehouse on Thursday to discuss the federal impacts on Vermont’s state budget.

In an interview, he called Trump’s then prospective order “unconstitutional,” characterizing the move as “pulling the rug out from underneath an important element of our educational system.”

Welch said he’s all for making the Department of Education “less bureaucratic,” but he argued the administration’s actions go well beyond an attempt at good governance. 

“This is an illegal part of the illegal rampage that Trump is on. I mean, he has no authority to destroy by fiat an institution that was created by an act of Congress — with Republican and Democratic votes, by the way,” Welch said. 

He predicted the courts will halt the department’s dismantling, but not before “so much damage” is done by the president’s orders. 

In a statement released after the order was signed Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., a former middle school teacher, decried the action as well, calling it “an absolute abandonment of our kids.”

“We have to fulfill our promises to them and to make it possible for every single kid to reach their fullest potential. And without the Department of Education we can’t provide the resources they need,” Balint said in the statement. 

“From my years in the classroom, I understand what federal support means for our students and our teachers,” she said. “Schools are a lifeline for so many families, this will mean schools won’t be able to provide our kids with the basics.”

Trump’s directive is not without precedent. Former President Ronald Reagan also sought the Department of Education’s abolishment, a move that ultimately failed to garner favor. Unlike current Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Reagan’s top education official, Terrel Bell, defended his department at the time. 

Read the story on VTDigger here: How will Trump’s push to dismantle the Department of Education affect Vermont?.