02-06-2025
Education Department: Proposed budget calls for billions in cuts
Last March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking the elimination of the Education Department — calling the 46-year-old federal agency 'a big con job' and pledging to move all things education 'back to the states where it belongs.'
Trump added that many of the Education's Department's 'useful functions' — including Title I funding and resources for children with disabilities — 'will be fully preserved' and 'redistributed to various other agencies and departments.'
Now the Trump administration is articulating its specific Department of Education fiscal intentions in its recently released annual White House budget proposal — which will ultimately require Congressional approval.
The department's 2026 budget request advances Trump's plan to 'reach balance and restore confidence in America's fiscal management by eliminating spending that does not support meaningful learning and returning responsibility for services that are better provided by the states, local governments, or civil society organizations to each respectively.'
Added the document: 'Our goal is clear: to make education better, fairer, and more accountable by ending federal overreach and empowering families, schools, and states who best know the needs of their students.'
The Education Department is requesting $66.7 billion — an approximate $12 billion reduction (or about 15%) from the 2025 appropriation.
The proposed budget cut, according to the document, 'reflects an agency that is responsibly winding down.'
As Trump promised, the Education Department's budget request asserts it maintains the current Title I allocations of $18.4 billion.
Title I funds aim to help students from low-income families achieve in the classroom.
'The request recognizes the importance of funds under Title I-A Grants to Local Educational Agencies (LEAs), which serve as a critical source of support for LEAs in communities of concentrated poverty,' the document noted.
'This program also provides considerable flexibility to LEAs on how to use the funds to best address the needs of their students — which is consistent with the Administration's goal to return education back to the states while maintaining support for families and their students.'
More than 108,000 Utah K-12 students benefit from Title I money.
The Education Department also administers the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that helps schools pay for services for students with disabilities.
The agency's 2026 budget request provides $14.9 billion for the IDEA Grants to States program — about $677 million more than the 2024 appropriation. It also calls for consolidating the Preschool Grant program and the Special Education National Activities programs into the Grants to States program.
The Grants to States program, the request noted, will continue to be allocated to states and LEAs. States will receive additional flexibility to reserve funds for state-level activities — including those currently supported under the National Activities programs.
States, the proposal added, would continue to meet key IDEA accountability and reporting requirements 'aimed at ensuring a free appropriate public education is available to all students with disabilities' while protecting the 'rights of those students and their families.'
The document said the proposals reflect the Trump administration's commitment to increasing flexibility for states 'while limiting federal overreach into schools.'
The National School Lunch Program, which reimburses Utah schools and other states for students receiving free or reduced school meals, is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture — not the Education Department.
The department's 2026 budget proposal argues that federal support for education in the past has supported programs ill-suited for states.
As a result, the budget proposal added, 'states are forced to hire increasingly large numbers of staff not to serve students, but to apply for competitive grants and manage the bureaucratic red tape imposed by the federal government. … It is time for the federal government to get out of the way of states and localities as they turn their attention to education outcomes instead of compliance with Federal red tape.'
While calling for maintained support for flexible Title I grants to LEAs, the Education Department's 2026 budget includes a proposed 'K-12 Simplified Funding Program,' which would consolidate many currently federally funded grant programs for elementary and secondary education into a single 'state formula' grant program.
'States and localities would have flexibility to use (Simplified Funding Program) funds for any number of elementary and secondary education activities, consistent with the needs of their communities,' the document states.
The budget request notes it would maintain separate funding for Impact Aid and Indian Education — 'both in support of underserved student populations.'
But the Trump administration is not requesting funding for several stand-alone elementary and secondary education programs for 2026.
'These eliminations are part of the Administration's overall effort to restore fiscal discipline and reduce the federal role in education. States and localities, not the federal government, are best suited to determine whether to support the activities authorized under the various programs within their own budgets and without unnecessary administrative burden imposed by the federal government.'
Existing Education Department-funded programs being eliminated as stand-alone programs — and instead being recommended for consolidation into the K-12 Simplified Funding Program — include programs promoting literacy; enhanced library programs; education services for 'Neglected, Delinquent & At-Risk Children'; the McKinney-Vento programs assisting homeless students; rural education programs; and arts education for students, including those with disabilities.
The Education Department budget proposal does not include requests for future funding for the Supporting Effective Educator Development, or SEED, program.
Also eliminated from the budget proposal are funds for migrant education.
'This program has not been proven effective and encourages ineligible noncitizens to access taxpayer dollars stripping resources from American students,' according to the document.
The Education Department's budget document referenced the alarming rate of the nation's eighth graders who are struggling in reading and math — and blames federal control for 'decimating student achievement.'
More local school options such as charter schools, the document argues, are needed to give parents choices for their children's education.
'So the request strategically invests $500 million, a $60 million increase, to expand high-quality charter schools, which have a proven record of improving students' academic achievement,' according to the report.
'These funds would support new and continuation awards that make start-up, replication, expansion, and facility support available to charter schools capable of delivering innovative solutions to meet student needs.'
The 2026 budget proposal provides $1.4 billion for Career and Technical Education (CTE) State Grants — an amount equal to the 2024 appropriation.
Secondary and postsecondary CTE programs, according to the document, 'integrate academic and technical pursuits, introduce students to careers as early as middle school, support attainment of postsecondary credentials of value, and prepare students for career pathways in in-demand, high-wage fields.'
The requested programs, the document added, reflects the need to prepare American workers for the 'historic amount of in-demand and high-quality jobs that will help rebuild the American economy by supporting states.'
The Education Department's 2026 proposed budget would set a maximum Pell Grant award of $5,710 for award year 2026-2027 — a decrease of $1,685 over the 2024-2025 award year.
Pell Grants are financial 'grants' awarded to undergraduate students from low-income families. They have been a traditional pathway for many Americans to pursue higher education.
The proposed award modifications, according to the document, will continue to cover the average in-state tuition and fees of attending a community college.
'The President is committed to fulfilling his promise to preserve the Pell Grant program; however, the growing funding shortfall created by past congressional decisions makes it necessary to decrease the maximum award,' according to the document.
