There has been a lot of chatter regarding the dismantling of the Department of Education both before and after the new Trump administration took office. As of March 20th, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that officially called for the dismantling of said department. This executive order specifically states that the new US Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, also the wife of WWE founder Vince McMahon, will “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities.”
The closure of a department that seems so vital to this country’s educational system it leads one to ask many questions. One of those questions asked is if such a drastic move places at-risk children at a disadvantage.
When it comes to school districts supporting their students, much of that support is provided in the form of federal and state grants. Interim Superintendent Jennifer Curry and Chief Financial Officer Jewell Clair of the Wayne-Westland Community School District said, “the largest of which are the Title grants, which are federal, and the At Risk, which is state-funded.”
What type of things do these grants pay for, you may ask? “Universal free breakfast and lunch could be one of the cuts,” Curry and Clair state. “At-risk funds that are used to help low-income families could be cut.”
Another thing to be on the lookout for is just how this will impact these at-risk children when it comes to their learning and testing abilities. Data provided by mischooldata.org shows that students who are either economically disadvantaged or have disabilities generally perform worse on benchmark testing for the M-STEP. This was true across the board for all subjects ranging from ELA, Math, Science and Social Studies.
This is even more alarming when considering that there are significantly more children who are economically disadvantaged than those who are not. The data shows that out of the 9,629 students, 65.7% of these students are economically disadvantaged. When it comes to students who have disabilities, 20.5% represent this population. That equates to 1,973 students in the district.
Students with disabilities being placed at a disadvantage is a concern that the Wayne-Westland Community School District is aware of. “Most of special education funding is codified or based on law. We are hoping that the courts will not allow changes in this very important funding and the legislature will back up these laws… We are continuing to provide services this year with a cautious eye at what might happen next year. We are hoping that the courts will prevail, and funding will be continued by the legislature” Curry and Claire state.
Though the process of dismantling the US Department of Education has not been completed, the early wreckage is clear for everyone to see. There has been an overall reduction in its workforce, leaving many waiting to see just what will become of it and how it will impact the students of this country.
