President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Education, Linda McMahon, faced senators on Capitol Hill Thursday morning at her confirmation hearing. But the fate of the department remains unclear as Trump and his team have expressed their intent to dismantle the agency, which employs thousands of staffers. But what exactly does the department do and how does it impact California?
Q: What is the U.S. Department of Education?
A: The U.S. Department of Education is a federal agency that oversees education policy and provides funding for public schools. The department was established in 1979 and signed into law by Jimmy Carter. Today, the department employs more than 4,000 people and has an annual budget of around $79 billion.
Q: What does the U.S. Department of Education do?
A: The U.S. Department of Education serves more than 50 million pre-k through 12th grade students in about 100,000 public schools and 32,000 private schools. The department also supports more than 12 million undergraduate college students through grant, loan and work-study assistance. The agency’s primary responsibility is to ensure that all students have equal access to education, but it also supports students and schools by providing funding, investigating allegations of discrimination through its civil rights division, the Office for Civil Rights, and collecting data and research on schools, including measuring students’ progress through the nationwide test, the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
Q: How much funding does the U.S. Department of Education send schools?
A: While most school funding comes from state and local governments, the U.S. Department of Education disperses billions of dollars in funding to schools across California. The department had an operating budget of around $79 billion for the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years. That money goes to support a wide-range of programs and grants, including adult education and career and technical education programs, financial assistance to rural districts, art education programs and projects aimed at improving American history and civics education in schools.
Funding also supports educator professional development and training, aims to improve school safety, backs school nutrition programs that provide free and reduced lunch to millions of students and early childhood education and preschool programs. A significant portion of funding also goes to supporting underserved and disadvantaged student populations, like minority students, low-income students, English language learners, homeless students and special education students. Two of the most important department funding streams to public schools are the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which provides money to school districts to help schools serve students with disabilities, and Title I, which provides money for schools to serve low-income students. The department allocated about $18 billion nationally for Title I funding and more than $14 billion for IDEA funding for the 2024 fiscal year. The U.S. Department of Education also issues about $100 billion in student loans and gives out more than $30 billion in Pell Grants to low-income students.
Q: What can’t the U.S. Department of Education do?
A: States and local education agencies (school districts, school boards and county offices of education) oversee schools and determine graduation requirements and what is taught in classrooms, not the U.S. Department of Education. California has added a slew of new graduation requirements for students in the coming years, including a personal finance class and an expanded health class on the dangers of fentanyl use. California students will also be required to take an ethnic studies course — a controversial subject that has sparked outrage in classrooms and communities across the state. And while the subject has instigated several civil rights complaints and lawsuits, the federal Department of Education has not been able to prevent the state from requiring the course.
Q: How much money does California receive from the U.S. Department of Education?
A: California received about $8 billion in funding for K-12 education and about $7 billion in funding for higher education in 2024. Those numbers don’t include federal Head Start funds, which go directly from the federal government to local educational agencies to assist low-income children 0-5 years old and aren’t administered by the state, or federal Child Care and Development Block Grant funding, which are administered by the state’s Department of Social Services. California received $1.5 billion in special education funding from the federal government for the 2024-25 school year. The state also received more than $2.5 billion in Title 1 funds, $77 million for career and technical education programs and nearly $6 million for nutrition services for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
Q: What will happen to funding and programs if Trump dismantles the department?
A: The Trump administration hasn’t said what will happen to the department’s programs or staff as Trump eyes significant cuts, but Trump has previously said he wanted McMahon “to put herself out of a job.” The Trump administration has already placed dozens of U.S. Education Department staff members on paid administrative leave and is reportedly drafting an executive order to shut programs not protected by law. But only Congress can shut the U.S. Education Department down entirely. McMahon acknowledged Thursday morning that shutting down the department would require “congressional action.” Two of the department’s biggest funding streams — Title I and IDEA — also require action from Congress to be undone, as both were voted into law in 1965 and 1975 respectively. California’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, has vowed to protect California students if Trump decides to make good on his promises to target the U.S. Department of Education. Thurmond said state leaders are prepared to introduce legislation that would backfill funding for special education programs and funding that directly supports low-income students.