What If... They Defund the Dept of Education?

A Political Education Series exploring the potential impacts, ramifications and ripples of policy and legislative changes imposed by the Trump Administration.

A slide with a purple and pink background of a space scene with white starts glittering depicts a faded pink outline of Donald Trump with laser eyes. In the middle of the slide is a logo mimicking the What If...? cartoon series with "33rd Ward Working Families" replacing the studio atop the logo. In a pink, translucent box in the bottom right of the slide is a description that reads "a political education series exploring the potential impacts, ramification and ripples of policy and legislative changes imposed by the Trump Administration."

 

The news headlines have been full of terrifying stories about the Trump administration defunding the Dept of Education.

A slide with a purple and pink space background reads "In the news" displaying various alarming stories from multiple sources about the executive orders and policy changes around the funding of the department of education.

 

So... What if they defund the Dept. of Education?

Let's explore the current and potential impacts of the Trump administration on American Public education and how these actions will affect students, teachers, our neighbors, our schools, and our community at large.

A slide with a purple gradient background displays an animated graphic of four students in desks. One is sitting in a chair, the next is raising their hand and sitting in a wheelchair, the third student has their legs crossed and is sitting to the side and the last student is sitting in the middle of their desk with a pencil in their hand. The text on the slide reads "topic: what if they defund the department of education? Exploring the current and potential impacts of the Trump administration on American Public education and how these actions will affect students, teachers, our neighbors, our schools and our communities at large."

 

A Brief Overview

Dept of Education's Mission: To promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.

$103.09 Billion: Fiscal Year 2025 U.S. Department of Education Budget

Funding used for

  • Title I Grant Funding - covers low income students
  • IDEA Special Education Grant Funding - covers students with disabilities
  • Other Funding - rural schools, native reservations, homeless youth, etc.

A slide with a purple gradient background displays in the top left corner, the logo of the dept of education in all white, with a tree at the center and the name of the department around it. Opposite this logo in the top right corner is the 33rd ward working families logo, red with a white outline of two hands clasping each other in solidarity and the name of the organization around the outside. Below the logos reads the text "A Brief Overview" and two smaller, white rectangles on top of a larger rectangle that runs the length of the two. In the top left rectangle is black text that read "Mission: To promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access." The text "ensuring equal access" is underlined. In the top right rectangle in bold black text reads, "$103.09 B, FY25 US Department of Education Budget". The bottom rectangle displays black text that reads "Title I Grant Funding - covers low income students IDEA Special Education Grant Funding - covers students with disabilities Other Funding - rural schools, native reservations, homeless youth, etc."

 

Average Illinois school district funding by percentages

  • Federal - 12.2%
  • State - 23.9%
  • Local - 64%

A slide with a half white, half purple background displays a pie chart with mint, light green and dark green colors representing local, state and federal funding. Text in bold on the right reads "Average Illinois School funding by percentages"

 

Pop Quiz! What Percentage of Chicago Public Schools’ Budget comes from federal funding?

  • 7%
  • 17.7%
  • 12.2%
  • 1.8%

 

A slide with a half white and half purple background displays in black text on the left, white side "what percentage of Chicago Public Schools' budget comes from federal funding?" and on the right, purple side, in white text, are the options of A. 7%; B. 17.7%; C. 12.2%; D. 1.8%.

ANSWER: 17.7%

 

Chicago Public Schools Funding Sources in percentages

Despite a steady decline in the overall population of students from low-income households, the percentage of Chicago Public Schools’ Federal funding has continued to increase from 2018 - 2023.

 

What is the funding used for?

Title I funding, IDEA funding, and more.

 

Pop Quiz! How many schools in the 33rd ward receive Title I funding (for low-income students)?

  • 8 out of 9 schools?
  • 4 out of 9 schools?
  • 7 out of 9 schools?
  • 9 out of 9 schools?

Answer: ALL NINE SCHOOLS.

  • Albany Park Multicultural
  • Bateman Elementary
  • Cleveland Elementary
  • Edison Elementary
  • Haugan Elementary
  • Patrick Henry Elementary
  • Hibbard Elementary
  • North River Elementary
  • Roosevelt High School

 

 

How will the loss of federal funding be felt here, in OUR COMMUNITY & ACROSS CHICAGO?

  • Loss of Essential Service for Special Education Students
  • Loss of Teacher & Teacher Aide positions
  • Increased class sizes
  • Loss of school-based mental health support
  • Loss of oversight & protection for students
  • Less accessible means to post-secondary education for working families

 

Funding at Risk in Illinois

  • Title I: $815,834,231
  • IDEA: $647,748,237
  • Other Dept of Ed funding: $233,891,535

 

What are they planning to do?

Project 2025 suggests replacing Title I with no-strings, block grants to states

  • Returning education decisions ”to the states”
  • Funneling cash into their own pockets. In Mississippi, uncontrolled federal funds were funneled to the wealthy Republicans who proposed a federal “school choice” voucher bill.

Control local Curricula & Programming with conditional funding parameters

  • Attacking Critical Race Theory, “Woke” Ideology, book banning, erasing & criminalizing LGBTQ+ identities

Trump has charged McMahon with ending the Dept. of Education, moving its programs to other agencies.

  • They have already begun dismissing all “probationary” employees (under 2 years of employment) putting the services and functionality of the department at risk.
  • Other governmental agencies that provide other funding for schools will also be on the chopping block.

 

Why are they doing this?

  • Privatization is about control & profit.
  • Funneling public dollars to private interests.
  • Weakening the power of public school teacher unions weakens labor overall.
  • Controlling funds allows them to enforce Christian Nationalism.
  • Scarcity allows them to divide the public and choke out progressive policies.
  • What else?

 

Reasons for Hope

Dismantling the Dept. of Education is deeply unpopular

  • 60% of people oppose in Wall Street Journal poll

Illinois successfully sunsetted the voucher program in 2024

  • Privatization supporters did not have enough support to extend the 5 year pilot.

Voucher ballots failed EVERYWHERE they ran in 2024

  • Nebraska, Kentucky, Colorado

Tennessee defeated voucher initiatives against a Republican trifecta

  • Organizers got 50 school boards to pass anti-voucher resolutions

YOU! US! Our Community! Independent Political Organizations

  • We are here and are part of a larger movement to fight for each other.
  • Successfully elected Graciela Guzmán to the Illinois State Senate!
  • In partnership with the Our Schools Coalition successfully elected Ebony Deberry for the ERSB!

 

 

What should we do about it?

Flooding the phone lines of congress illustrates how deeply unpopular these goals are but they will not stop the Trump Administration or Congress from making their goals reality.

We need to:

  • Think local
  • Stay action oriented
  • Future focused

 

Local Education Meetings

Find your Local School Council, check out IL Raise Your Hand workshops, and engage your Board of Education members!

 

THANK YOU

If you’re interested in helping create more political education modules reach out to the Steering Committee ([email protected]) or bring it up at the next small group committee meeting as a possible project.

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