After President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to dismantle the Department of Education, educators on both sides of the Mississippi River said they are bracing for what could come next.
Part of this plan includes parsing out some of the Department of Education’s responsibilities to different departments.
For example, as Trump announced Friday, the federal student loan program will now be managed by the Small Business Administration, while any programs related to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and nutrition will move to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump cannot dissolve the department through an executive order alone. Congress would have to pass legislation like HR 899 to officially close it, which has been co-sponsored by Republican Congresswoman Mary Miller in Illinois.
“For far too long, our students have been left behind by woke, unaccountable Washington bureaucrats and a bloated system failing them academically,” Miller said. “Now, our country has the opportunity to expand educational freedom, increase opportunities for families and unlock our full potential.”
Missouri Republican Congressman Eric Burlison is also a co-sponsor of HR 899, and he applauded the president’s commitment to closing the department.
“This is Trump recognizing the power shouldn't reside in Washington. The power should reside with the people,” Burlison said in an interview with Newstalk KZRG in Joplin.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon had announced earlier this month that she would implement a “reduction in force” at the department, which has slashed the staff by half.
St. Louis-area education leaders react
Superintendents in the greater St. Louis region have said that federal funding is a critical component of their annual budgets and that they are waiting to see how any disruptions to funding could trickle down to their communities.
For example, the Special School District in St. Louis County, which is designed to specifically serve students with disabilities, receives about $72 million in federal funding each year, with $41 million from the IDEA.
“These funds are essential to providing specialized services, individualized support plans, and resources to students with disabilities across St. Louis County,” Maclin said. “Reductions to this funding would create significant challenges in meeting the needs of our students.”
Ritenour School District Superintendent Chris Kilbride knows firsthand what it’s like to experience disruption to federal funding.
In February, the district could not draw down $8.32 million in funds to pay for a fleet of electric school buses after a federal funding freeze. After weeks in limbo, the district was eventually able to make payments and acquire the buses.
“Federal funding supports our most vulnerable learners, students that are in need of remediation, students in need of intervention through Title programs, as well as students that are supported under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.,” Kilbride said. “If the funding is impacted for our most vulnerable learners, that's going to be bad for kids, and it's going to be bad for the community.”
Kilbride said that Ritenour received about $4 million in federal funding for this school year. He said the district hasn’t received federal funds for the 2025-26 school year.
St. Louis schools, which include both St. Louis Public Schools and charter schools, received over $17 million in federal funds for this school year, according to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
According to Millicent Borishade, superintendent of SLPS, that’s about 13% of its operating budget.
“Our primary concern is ensuring the continued stability and continuity of educational services for all students at SLPS,” Borishade said in a statement. “It is our hope that any significant shift in the educational landscape prioritizes minimal disruptions to learning.”
DESE said in a statement that it is waiting for further guidance from the federal government to understand how these potential changes may impact programs and funding administered by the state.
Illinois education leaders react
For Gabrielle Rodriguez, superintendent of Central School District 104 in O’Fallon, Illinois, it’s not a time for celebration. She likens this period of time to those that local schools went through during the early days of the pandemic.
“It feels like we are stuck back in the cyclical mode of ‘What’s coming next? What do we do next?’” Rodriguez said. “Superintendents like to be able to prepare, be professional and do things right, and communicate with families. It feels like we don’t have enough information to do so. So, it’s COVID 2.0 in my eyes.”
According to 2024 Illinois Report Card data, Central School District 104’s population of low-income students is higher than the statewide average. It also has what Rodriguez calls a significant portion of students with disabilities. This means that federal funding is essential to the district’s budget, comprising over 20% in the last fiscal year.
While most of Illinois and Missouri schools’ funding comes from state and local sources, educators stress that the relatively small percentage from the federal government is crucial. This includes Title I funding, which supports instructional initiatives for districts that serve low-income students, and IDEA.
When signing the executive order Thursday, Trump said Title I funding, resources for students with disabilities and special needs and Pell grants — a popular form of financial aid administered by the federal government — will be “preserved.”
Rodriguez questions whether this funding will actually be saved, given the administration’s other educational priorities like bolstering school choice. That money has to come from somewhere, she said, so what’s stopping that from coming out of public schools’ allocations?
Even if the White House makes good on this promise, the restructuring could disrupt services, said Cyndi Oberle-Dahm, secretary/treasurer for the Illinois Federation of Teachers and a history teacher at Belleville West High School.
“If we get rid of the folks from the Department of Education that actually know what they’re doing and parcel (their duties) off to other departments who are understaffed, that’s worrisome, to say the least,” Oberle-Dahm said.
