When Politics Dominate the Education Beat

New York Times

18-07-2025

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Dana Goldstein covers education at The New York Times. She writes about curriculum and textbooks. She reports on test scores. And lately, she has been covering education politics.
President Trump swept into office with plans to scale down the Department of Education. This week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could fire more than a thousand workers there. And earlier this month, the Republicans' domestic policy bill included a tax credit that could vastly expand access to private school vouchers.
'I've been on the beat for almost 20 years,' Ms. Goldstein explained in an interview with Times Insider. 'There are years where politics emerge as a bigger story line. And I just think there's no avoiding that this is one of those years.'
The conversation below, which was conducted Wednesday, has been edited and condensed.
The Supreme Court ruled that President Trump could go ahead and effectively dismantle the Department of Education. What is the department's role?
The vast majority of the Department of Education's budget is devoted to the federal student grant and loan program, which helps students pay for their college education. The department has a much smaller role in funding K-12 schools. The federal funding for K-12 education is about 10 percent of total funding for K-12 education across the country.
The federal government has very limited power over K-12 schools. For example, it's up to states to set curriculum standards, to decide how they want to handle standardized testing. Districts decide which books kids read. So a lot of the questions about education that can be controversial really are state and local decisions.
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