The latest twist in the ongoing concern over reported White House plans to end the U.S. Department of Education came this week. The Associated Press says members of the so- called Department of Government Efficiency were seen on Monday at the Department of Education, which Trump has vowed to abolish. Observers are already speculating on what impact could come if this particular agency goes away. One belief is that small, and often conservative states like Alabama might feel the brunt of such a move. Professor David Lewis has been studying this issue at Vanderbilt University. He told APR news that could mean a mixed bag of results in Alabama. One is a change in federal funding.
“And I think that probably what's likely to happen is, if they propose to eliminate the Department of Education,” said Lewis. “They'll take all of the education money, and they will sort of lump it together and kind of lump sums and send it to the States with fewer restrictions on how it's spent.”
That might sound good for Alabama. But, Lewis says supporters of this idea might want to be careful what they wish for. He believes education funding without the Department of Education to administer it might be vulnerable to cuts by Congress after the first year or so. The Center for American Progress speculates that Alabama could lose ten percent of its teachers if the Education Department goes way. Lewis says one down side from eliminating the agency is a lack of oversight.
“Will this mean that the state itself is less aggressive at say, protecting against discrimination for on the basis of gender, so like Title IX, will we see some slippage in terms of equality in funding for different sports, for men and women, will there be some slippage in policies related to making sure that poor kids have the same opportunities as kids in better school districts?” Lewis speculated.
Regarding cuts to the Department of Education, and elsewhere, DOGE leader Elon Musk has been named as a special government employee, which subjects him to less stringent rules on ethics and financial disclosures than other workers. Trump has given Musk office space in the White House complex where he oversees a team of people at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The team has been dispersed throughout federal agencies to gather information and deliver edicts.
The speed and scope of his work has been nothing short of stunning. In a little more than two weeks since Trump took office, the world's richest man has created an alternative power structure inside the federal government for the purpose of cutting spending and pushing out employees. None of this is happening with congressional approval, inviting a constitutional clash over the limits of presidential authority.
Republicans defend Musk as simply carrying out Trump's slash-and-burn campaign promises. Trump made no secret of his desire to put Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur behind the electric automaker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX, in charge of retooling the federal government.
"Elon can't do and won't do anything without our approval," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
The Republican president also played downs concerns about Musk's conflict of interests as he flexes his power over the bureaucracy even though his businesses face regulatory scrutiny and have federal contracts.
"Where we think there's a conflict or there's a problem, we won't let him go near it, but he has some very good ideas," Trump said.
Democrats, for their part, accused Musk of leading a coup from within the government by amassing unaccountable and illegal power.
"We will do everything in our power in the Senate and the House to stop this outrage," Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said. "And in the meantime, since we don't have many Republican colleagues who want to help us, we are doing everything we can with our colleagues through the courts to make sure that we uphold the rule of law."
The apex of Musk's work so far came on Monday at the Washington headquarters for the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, where yellow police tape blocked access to the lobby and hundreds of employees were locked out of computer systems. Musk said Trump had agreed to let him shutter the agency.
"It's not an apple with a worm in it, what we have is just a ball of worms," Musk said of the world's largest provider of humanitarian, development and security assistance. "You've got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It's beyond repair."
Musk has also turned his attention to the General Services Administration, or GSA, which manages federal government buildings. An email sent last week from the Washington headquarters instructed regional managers to begin terminating leases on roughly 7,500 federal offices nationwide.
The initiative is being led by Nicole Hollander, according to an agency employee who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters. Hollander describes herself on LinkedIn as an employee at X, Musk's social media platform.
"This has gone beyond the pale. This is out of control. This is not a normal situation," said Keya Chatterjee, executive director of Free DC, a local advocacy organization. She participated in a protest on Monday outside the Office of Personnel Management, which is one of the lesser-known federal agencies key to Musk's agenda.
Musk's work has unnerved federal employees who are being nudged toward the exits. On Sunday night, concerns swept through the workforce that they could be locked out of internal human resources system, denying them access to their own personnel files that showed pay history, length of service and qualifications. Supervisors in some agencies encouraged employees to download their records, called an SF-50, to personal computers so that they could prove their employment history in the event of disputes.
