President Trump has been busy since taking office. The new commander in chief has signed executive orders on declaring a national emergency along the Mexico border and pardons for the people accused in the January 6th attack on the Capitol. It’s what he hasn’t done yet that have some people worried. One goal in the conservative blueprint called Project 2025 calls for ending the U.S. Department of Education. Could this mean for small states like Alabama.
The Trump Administration has tried to distance itself from the conservative document known as Project 2025. One of the major policy suggestions in this document is reportedly the removal of the Department of Education. This raises some big issues.
“So I think the question is, if we get rid of the Department of Education, will the federal government continue to send dollars to the state?” said David Lewis. He’s a professor in the Department of Political Science and the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt University.
“If the Department of Education is eliminated, what does that mean for some regulatory policies that are not budget related that are important to citizens of Alabama,” he said.
Lewis specializes in executive politics, policy, and public administration. To him, the dismantling of the federal department of Education is not a bad thing but could cause changes in how the funding is given to states like Alabama.
“So they'll make a block grant, they'll send it to the states, and then the state of Alabama would have more flexibility about how to use that with fewer requirements,” said Lewis.
There may be a catch with this new type of funding. More on that in a moment. As for Project 2025 and its role in the possible end of the U.S. Department of Education, APR news reached out to the Heritage Foundation. The conservative group published 2025. APR invited the group to be interviewed for this story, but no one has been made available. While all this goes on, States like Alabama have taken actions that appear in line with Trump Administration polices...
“We're representing students and professors in Alabama who are being impacted by the state's anti DEI law,” said. Antonio Ingram, with the Legal Defense Fund. He’s referring to an Alabama law doing away with diversity, equity, and inclusion offices at University campuses statewide. Ingram says these changes have negatively impacted students throughout the state. He is representing a group of African American students and professors who are suing the state.
“It hurts not only the faculty, but their students, because it deprives them of receiving a fulsome education that the citizens of Alabama need for their future, doctors, lawyers, professors, social workers,” he asserts.
Ingram states that actions like dismantling DEI offices are being influenced either directly or indirectly by the Trump Administration. Ingram looks at some of the actions by the Trump Administration in his first term as evidence for this claim.
“They actually came from Trump's first term, and an executive order that he issued, Executive Order, 13950, and those, those concepts are being you should essentially copied and pasted into the Alabama legislative law that we're now challenging,” he said.
APR news reached out to Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office comment. There’s been no response. The nation and its teachers are waiting to see the long term effects of actions by the White House on ending the Department of Education. Experts like David Lewis at Vanderbilt are wondering about the possible loss of regulation if the agency goes away.
“Will this mean that the state itself is less aggressive at say, protecting against discrimination for for on the basis of gender, so like Title Nine, 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 asked.
Lewis also warns about the impact of losing direct federal funding from Washington. Advocates for small government might need to be careful what they wish for. Mister Lewis warns that even though the funding may continue for the time being, this is not the case for the future...
“Now, in general, if that were the case, then maybe the impact on Alabama as a whole might be less in the sense that we're still getting the state would still get the same amount of money,” he said. “The difficulty will be, that's true the first year and the second year. But then with these block grants, they become easier to cut when they're kind of a lump sum.”
