Markey, teachers unions denounce Trump’s move to dismantle the Department of Education

Flags fly over the Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building is seen on last week in Washington, DC. President Trump has indicated that he is seeking to abolish the Department of Education by executive order in the coming weeks. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty

US Senator Edward J. Markey and leaders of the state’s largest teachers unions gathered Monday in Boston to denounce President Trump’s moves to dismantle the US Department of Education, calling it an attack on publicly funded education.

President Trump has called for closing the federal agency, and to “move education” under the control of individual states. On Monday, Markey, along with union leaders and education advocates, blasted Trump’s efforts as targeting programs that help Black and Latino students, and children who have learning disabilities.

Trump and his allies have said the department promotes indoctrination of young people into progressive ideology and wastes government dollars on DEI programs, while also failing to deliver on its core mission of improving education outcomes from kindergarten to college.

However, Markey during a press conference Monday at the African Meeting House, the oldest existing Black church building in the country contended that if the education department is dismantled, “those who will suffer the most are those who need it the most. And we know that every public school student, every educator, every community in Massachusetts, is going to be hurt,” Markey said during a press conference at the African Meeting House, the oldest existing Black church building in the country.

“The Trump administration has set its sights on gutting public education,” Markey said.

Markey said he would vote against Linda McMahon, Trump’s nominee to serve as the Secretary of the Department of Education. He accused McMahon of conforming to the positions of the Project 2025 report, the conservative blueprint for reshaping the federal government.

Linda McMahon, Trump’s nominee to serve as the country’s education secretary, is expected to appear before the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee on Thursday, according to Markey’s office.

Speaking to reporters last week, Trump said: “I told Linda, ‘Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job.’ I want her to put herself out of a job.”

Markey, during Monday’s press conference, blasted McMahon.

“We know what her mission is going to be. It is going to be to sell out the children in our country who need it the most — the educational opportunities that are being provided right now — for tax breaks for billionaires,” Markey said.

Lea-Antoinette Serena, the executive vice president of the Boston Teachers Union, said Trump’s efforts to shut down the Education Department was not just about an agency in Washington, but was part of an attack on public education.

“It’s an attack on every student, every teacher, every classroom and every family that relies on a strong, well funded and equitable public education system,” said Serena, who attended the city’s schools as a first-generation American.

Last week, media outlets reported Trump was drafting an executive order that would eventually close the US Department of Education. The administration has already started to diminish the agency by taking steps like placing many employees on administrative leave or encouraging people to quit. Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” is also looking to cut spending and staff, according to the Washington Post.

One of the education department’s primary roles is distributing billions in student aid dollars to the states, including $18 billion through Title 1, which supports students living in poverty, and $15 billion through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, which helps students receiving special education services.

The department administers the student loans and federal financial aid colleges rely on for revenue, distributes federal grants to K-12 schools with low-income students, funds special education programs, collects data, and enforces federal antidiscrimination laws.

The Department of Education, created by an act of Congress in 1979, would require congressional action to disband completely. It was created in the wake of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty” in the 1960s, and the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which expanded the federal government’s role in education.

Since then, the department’s headcount has approximately doubled, to 4,300 employees, and its annual budget grew to $60 billion. It is the smallest of the 15 Cabinet-level departments.

In Massachusetts, the agency provided more than $720 million in funding to Massachusetts during fiscal 2024, according to US Senator Edward J. Markey’s office.

That money included $366 million for 182,000 students with disabilities, which represents about a fifth of the state’s student population, according to Markey’s office said. Funding also included $289 million to schools enrolling 425,000 students from low-income backgrounds, and $20.5 million for 97,000 English learners, Markey’s statement said.

The Project 2025 report said the education department “should be eliminated” while its role in distributing funds to states should be phased out or transferred to other federal agencies.

Project 2025 called for Title I to be shifted to the Administration of Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services, and ultimately phase out the funding over 10 years. Special education funding should be shifted to the Health and Human Service’s Administration for Community Living, it said.

The Office for Civil Rights within the Education Department enforces federal civil rights laws in schools, investigating claims of discrimination based on sex, race, and disability status. Project 2025 recommends transferring responsibilities for civil rights in education to the Department of Justice.

Trump, in December, called for “a virtual closure of [the] Department of Education in Washington,” in an interview with Time magazine.

“We want to move education back to the states,” Trump said in the interview.

While Trump moves to shutter the nation’s education department, he hasn’t sworn off federal involvement in schools entirely.

Early in his second term, Trump has already issued several directives for the federal government to promote “patriotic” learning in K-12 schools and compel universities to shed diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, as well as rid themselves of antisemitism.

Trump ordered federal agencies to review ways funds can be used to support school choice initiatives, such as vouchers to private and faith-based schools, which critics have said could starve public school districts of needed funding.

He also issued orders that froze federal funds to K-12 schools and other organizations, though the order was challenged in court, and he later withdrew the directive. He’s decreed that schools receiving federal funds cannot teach what Trump called critical race theory. The Trump administration has also changed longstanding Department of Homeland Security policy to allow federal immigration enforcement in “sensitive” places like schools.