In the past few months, President-elect Donald Trump has unveiled his plans for America’s public education system during his second term. Trump has promised to dismantle the Department Of Education, which oversees federal funding and assistance in education and enforces civil rights laws such as Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational activities and programs that receive federal funding. 

Trump hopes to return many of the decisions under the DOE’s jurisdictions back to the states, allowing each state — or even individual school districts — to make the educational decisions they believe to be most beneficial. Republicans are also hoping to see school vouchers become more accessible, which allows parents to get federal funding to send children to private schools or homeschool them. These school vouchers usually receive funding from the budget allocated for public schools. 

Trump’s plans start with his nomination of Linda McMahon to become the head of the Department of Education, which is still pending Senate approval. McMahon is a former professional wrestling corporate executive  and served as the administrator of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term. 

Some are worried about McMahon’s qualifications to lead the DOE, since she does not have prior experience in education. “I feel like in order to run a department that does this many important things, you need to have a good understanding of how that works. I don’t think she has any experience with the main three things that [the DOE does] with civil rights and higher education and Title I, so I don’t know if she’ll be able to run that well or efficiently, but we will see,” said senior Sarah Pederson. 

Under McMahon, the Department of Education could begin to undo changes that were made under the Biden administration. One such change could be a repeal of an amendment to Title IX, which allowed transgender women to compete in women’s sports, a long standing issue for many Republicans. Trump has also discussed reducing the amount of funding the DOE receives out of the federal budget even further than he did in his first term. 

The lack of federal funding for public schools could create a disadvantage for students in states where public education is already underfunded, like Alabama and New Mexico. A loss of funding could also cause layoffs resulting in larger class sizes. “Clearly, some states are going to fund education more than other states are. Some states will be better at it than other states will, and you want to have an even playing field for all students. [It] doesn’t matter if you’re a high school kid in Alabama or New York or Arkansas or Minnesota. You should be receiving the same level of education,” said social studies teacher Scott Oberg. According to an annual report released in January by the Albert Shanker Institute, 60% of the nation’s students in the most chronically underfunded districts are in just 10 states, yet these 10 states serve 30% of students nationwide.

Critics — mainly left-leaning groups — also argue that dismantling the Department of Education would affect public schools’ ability to provide special education programs that are funded on a federal level and meet students’ IEPs (Individual Education Plans), which outline students’ special educational needs. “With no Department of Education […] I think states would really struggle to pay for a lot of those special education needs,” said social studies teacher Justin Benolkin. “It’s up to individual states passing laws, and it’s up to individual school districts abiding by those.”

Although the idea of the Department of Education getting dismantled worries some, the probability of this plan going into effect is unlikely. Senate Republicans require at least 60 votes to break the filibuster that Democrats most likely will propose if the bill manages to pass the House. Right now, only 53 senators are Republican, which would not be enough according to Education Week.  

Regardless of if it goes through, Trump’s proposal reflects a turn towards decentralizing education in the U.S. and amplifying parental control over school systems. However, before any of these plans can even be considered, McMahon’s nomination must be heard by the Senate, which  is expected to happen in January.