Courtesy of Amanda Leiter.
On Tuesday, hundreds of demonstrators joined Democratic lawmakers outside the Department of the Treasury in Washington D.C. to protest Elon Musk’s role in the new Trump administration.
The Trump administration is considering dismantling the Department of Education, per the Wall Street Journal—a move that could have significant implications for institutions of higher education like UChicago.
The dismantling of the Department of Education would threaten federal financial aid, Title I administration, Title IX enforcement, and student loans.
President Donald Trump’s draft order would shut down all Department of Education functions not written explicitly into statute and direct the agency to begin to diminish itself, per the Wall Street Journal. The executive order would also call for a Congressional proposal to abolish the agency.
Established in 1979, the Department of Education administers federal financial aid for education, oversees research on American schooling, and enforces civil rights statutes in educational institutions.
Among the Department of Education’s responsibilities is awarding federal Pell Grants to undergraduate students “who display exceptional financial need.” 14 percent of students in UChicago’s Class of 2024 received Pell Grants.
The agency is also responsible for administering the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which the University’s financial aid office uses to determine eligibility for University grants and Federal Work-Study.
Along with providing financial support for students, the Department of Education also enforces Title IX’s civil rights protections. This enforcement also applies to private colleges, like UChicago, which receive federal financial assistance.
The University did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
Stuart Eizenstat, chief domestic policy advisor to President Jimmy Carter, told the Maroon on Tuesday that the creation of the Department of Education in 1979 was “one of President Carter’s most important legacies.” From 1953–79, federal education policy was set by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
“If there are areas [of Department of Education policy], such as DEI, where the current administration has issues,” Eizenstat said, referring to Trump’s executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, “their removal can be done with a scalpel, not with a bludgeon.”
Republicans have campaigned against the Department of Education’s existence since its inception, but according to Eizenstat, “the difference this time is that the president seems to be making it a top priority.”
On the campaign trail, Trump promised to “get rid” of the Department of Education. In its 2024 platform, the Republican Party pledged to “close the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. and send it back to the States, where it belongs, and let the States run our educational system as it should be run.”
Trump’s recently established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, has campaigned to cut spending across the executive branch.
On Monday, Musk posted on X, “Reagan campaigned on ending the federal Dept of Education, which was created by Carter in 1979, but it was bigger when Reagan left office than when he started! Not this time. President @realDonaldTrump will succeed.”
Neither DOGE nor Musk could be reached for comment. DOGE has neither a working website nor a press contact. Multiple individual employees of DOGE did not respond to requests for comment.
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law administrative law professor James Speta told the Maroon that the “wholesale elimination of a Congressionally created agency would have to go through Congress.”
However, Speta said, whether an agency could refrain from acting on its congressional authority or shift its responsibilities to another agency depended on specifics of the legislation that created the agency and on unresolved legal questions concerning separation of powers.
In the past few months, both U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and U.S. Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) have introduced legislation to curtail or abolish the Department of Education.
Neither Rounds’s office nor Massie’s office responded to requests for comment.
“The Department of Education is not in the U.S. Constitution,” Jonathan Butcher, a senior fellow in education at the Heritage Foundation, told the Maroon when asked why the Heritage Foundation believes the Department of Education should be abolished.
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank and the publisher of Project 2025, a sweeping policy framework aimed at expanding executive power under a Trump administration. The plan, published in January 2023, advocates for the Department of Education’s abolition.
Underwriting student loans is “not the job of the federal government,” Butcher said. “We should be collapsing some of the loan programs.”
Butcher recommended that the government “move the entire student loan program to the Treasury, and ultimately [that the Department of Education] should be downsized significantly.”
Downsizing or closing the Department of Education “would put pressure on schools to bring their tuition more in line with the cost of education,” Butcher said.
Eizenstat said it would be “disastrous” to move the Department of Education’s responsibilities to the Department of the Treasury or anywhere else in the executive branch.
“Those responsibilities would then be fulfilled by people without an education background,” Eizenstat, who served as deputy secretary of the treasury under President Bill Clinton, said.
The Department of Education and the Department of the Treasury did not respond to requests for comment.
In a January 30 message to Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) staff, Illinois State Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders wrote, “At this time, there have been no changes to federal legislation, regulations or funding that would warrant a local response, and all Illinois state laws remain intact.”
When asked about the effects of a possible abolition of the Department of Education, the ISBE referred the Maroon to a post on X by Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker, which reads, “If Trump dismantles the Dept. of Education, he will be jeopardizing public education for our most vulnerable communities. Rural schools. Low-income areas. Special ed teachers and students with disabilities. Our families, kids, and teachers deserve more.”
Trump has nominated Linda McMahon as secretary of education. McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive, led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first presidency. A date for McMahon’s Senate confirmation hearing has not been set.
When asked on Monday about his decision to appoint McMahon, Trump said he wanted “states to run schools” and for “Linda to put herself out of a job.”
McMahon could not be reached for comment.
The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
This is a developing story.
Anu Vashist and Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon contributed reporting.