The U.S. Senate voted 51-45 on March 3 to confirm Linda McMahon as the U.S. Secretary of Education. McMahon, who previously served as the administrator of the Small Business Association, has promised to work with President Donald Trump to ensure the Department of Education runs more “efficiently” and to downsize the department. After picking McMahon for the role, Trump said her goal should be to “put herself out of a job.”
The Department of Education is a cabinet-level agency responsible for administering the Pell Grant federal aid program, managing funding to low-income K-12 schools and running the nation’s system of federal student loans, among many other services.
Trump’s proposed changes to the department’s efficiency or a complete department shutdown could pose threats to higher education institutions, including Emory University. Pell Grants face an uncertain future, especially with 19% of Emory’s undergraduate students receiving the aid.
At a University Senate meeting on Feb. 25, University President Gregory Fenves shared his concerns about the future of the Pell Grant program.
“We should be worried with the Department of Education and potential changes in that,” Fenves said. “Pell Grants are already underfunded. I do have concerns about the Department of Education’s support for student loans.”
Young Democrats of Emory executive board member Royce Mann (25C) echoed this sentiment. He said that the decision to shut down the department and eliminate Pell Grants could be “extremely consequential.”
“There haven’t been clear plans released by the Trump administration about how they would go about administrating and keeping these grants going,” Mann said. “Already, we’ve seen Republican leaders work to roll back some of the progress that was made under the Biden administration when it comes to student debt relief.”
The Pell Grant program is projected to face a deficit in the current fiscal year for the first time in over a decade, exacerbating education professionals’ fears about the future of higher education. If Congress does not act to close the funding gap, the effects could be devastating, Rachel Fishman, director of the Higher Education program at New America told Inside Higher Ed. Fishman also voiced concern that increasing funding for the Pell Grant program may be more difficult than ever under Trump’s second administration.
While McMahon has stated that she plans to maintain Pell Grants, the Trump administration is reviewing the program as part of its efforts to decrease government spending. Trump has expressed interest in moving financial aid programs under the U.S. Department of the Treasury, which may slow down future proceedings.
Trump is the latest in a series of Republican politicians whose agendas include shutting down the Department of Education. Since his inauguration, the Trump administration has cut at least $600 million in funding to the department and began drawing up plans to lay off department employees.
The president does not have the power to unilaterally abolish the Department of Education, as that power belongs to Congress. A possible executive order would likely call to rehouse all the programs the department currently administers, which would require congressional approval, according to Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science Jeff Auerbach. He added this would entail “bureaucratic reshuffling.”
“All of the other things that the Department of Education does will just end up finding a new home,” Auerbach said. “In the interim, there will be an enormous amount of chaos.”
Alternatively, John Acevedo, Emory School of Law’s associate dean of students and academic programs, said Trump could bypass Congress by shutting down all department programs that are not congressionally authorized and directing the department to stop hiring new employees. If Trump does get congressional approval, Auerbach said Trump could deauthorize each program under the department separately to eliminate its entire ability to function.
Auerbach said the potential shuttering of the Department of Education will likely be challenged by lawsuits, further slowing down the process.
“There’s going to be so many lawsuits coming from states, coming from individuals who are affected, coming from families who have had their children’s special education classes cut top to bottom — just a series of lawsuits that can slow things down,” Auerbach said.
Shutting down the Department of Education might allow states to regain control over their own education programs, similar to how states ran education before former U.S. President Jimmy Carter established the department in 1980, according to Acevedo.
Both Acevedo and Auerbach mentioned that smaller, low-income states will probably be harmed most by this change, many of which largely voted for Trump in the 2024 election.
“It’s kind of ironic that states that are going to be harmed the most are going to mostly be red or purple states,” Acevedo said. “A lot of the central, upper South states are going to feel the pinch quite a bit.”
Acevedo added that wealthier states such as New York and Georgia will likely be able to raise their property taxes to compensate for the “federal shortfall.”
The Georgia Department of Education told Atlanta News First that the discussion surrounding the U.S. Department of Education currently remains “hypothetical” and that the state department is committed to “fulfilling its duties and responsibilities.”
Emory College Republicans President Si Kai Feng (28C) believes Trump’s intentions to tear down the department have generally been “well-received” among Republicans on campus. Feng called the Department of Education “extremely wasteful” and said it produced poor educational outcomes.
“American students, their performance in English and mathematics and all of these critical subjects, they’ve all fallen,” Feng said. “The current way the system is set up is probably not the best way for the system to be run.”
Feng noted that although it is unlikely that a potential executive order from Trump will shut down the department, he said the United States needs urgent education reform. He hopes Trump will give states more control over their education policies.
Despite all these possibilities for the Department of Education, Auerbach emphasized that any action Trump intends to take will be a slow, dragged-out process.
“There’s no point in freaking out about something that fundamentally will not matter,” Auerbach said. “Take a breath. The process is not designed to go fast, and so even if he’s trying to move fast and break things, take a deep breath. Just wait.”
