PROVIDENCE – Members of Rhode Island’s Democratic congressional delegation and the state teachers union are criticizing President Donald Trump’s executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, while the Rhode Island Republican Party is applauding it.
U.S. Reps. Seth Magaziner and Gabe Amo and U.S. Sen. Jack Reed as well as the National Education Association Rhode Island say that eliminating the department will lead to larger class sizes and teacher layoffs, decrease services for students with disabilities and increase college costs for families.
Meanwhile, the Rhode Island Republican Party claims that Trump’s “bold and necessary move is long overdue” because “for decades, the federal government has poured billions of dollars into a system that continues to deliver diminishing returns for America’s students.”
Rhode Island receives about $275 million in federal funds annually for public education, which is 15% of the state’s education budget.
Reed said in a statement, “President Trump’s effort to abolish the U.S. Department of Education would shortchange students, undercut K-12 public schools nationwide, and make the cost of college even more expensive for working families.
“We need to raise education standards, not lower them. I will continue working to wisely invest in the best interests of students and taxpayers,” Reed said.
Rhode Island Republican Party Chairman Joe Powers, also in a statement, said, “We’ve seen what happens when Washington bureaucrats try to micromanage education from afar: test scores drop, student engagement plummets, and parents are left with no voice.”
“President Trump’s move to eliminate the Department of Education is not just symbolic – it’s a substantive shift toward empowering states, communities, and most importantly, parents. It’s time to raise the waterline of education in America,” Powers said.
Trump signed the order Thursday while flanked by more than a dozen students seated at school desks. The ceremony in the White House’s East Room was attended by several Republican governors and state education commissioners, USA Today reported.
Trump has said the department is wasteful, and the move shifts power for public education back to the states. He said federal Title I funds for schools in high-poverty regions, funding for students with disabilities, Pell Grants and student loans will be “fully preserved” and still administered by the department, according to USA Today.
Powers said the U.S. Department of Education’s budget has increased from $14 billion when it was created in 1979 to $270 billion in 2024, but student performance has declined.
According to Powers, eliminating the Department of Education would restore control to the states and “unlock the ability to tailor educational strategies to local needs.”
“Let’s be clear – proper funding for our schools isn’t going anywhere,” Powers said.
“I suspect President Trump may be upset when he learns the executive order he signed today doesn’t actually override the Constitution,” Reed said. “He lacks both the authority and requisite congressional support to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. I will do everything I can to oppose this wasteful, extremist attempt to shortchange students and hang school districts in need out to dry.”
Fellow Democrat Magaziner said, “Rhode Island receives significant funding from the Department of Education to help students in every school district, and especially those with special learning needs, get access to the services they deserve.”
“President Trump and Elon Musk’s push to slash education funding to finance tax breaks for billionaires is as reckless as it is shameful,” Magaziner said.
Amo, also a Democrat, said, “Donald Trump’s directive to eliminate the Department of Education is shameful, cruel, and morally bankrupt. It accomplishes nothing except hurting America’s schoolchildren. As Republicans fall over themselves to justify this latest half-baked idea, I don’t want to hear another word about how they support students and families.”
Without federal funds, some 850 teachers in Rhode Island would lose their jobs, Magaziner and Amo estimated previously.
National Education Association Rhode Island executive director Mary Barden said the Department of Education “plays a critical role in ensuring equity in the public schools.”
“Dismantling the Department of Education robs America’s students of the promise of a full and fair education. Students and their families in every Rhode Island community – urban, suburban, and rural alike – will be harmed by Trump and Musk’s wrecking ball,” Barden said.
“Trump’s action, if successful, will balloon class sizes, gut special education services, diminish job training programs, destroy student civil rights protections, and put higher education further out of reach for families,” she said.
Reed said abolishing the U.S. Department of Education would require both a majority vote in the U.S. House of Representatives and 60 votes in the U.S. Senate to bypass a filibuster. Reed said Trump lacks the votes in the U.S. Senate, with Republicans currently holding a majority with 53 seats.
Reed noted that public education is largely under state and local control, but the U.S. Department of Education was created “to provide critical guidance, support, protections, and funding for students, teachers, and public education across the nation.”
He said its responsibilities include administering billions in federal funding to almost every public school, including funds that help support students from low-income families and students with disabilities; providing and monitoring federal financial aid for postsecondary education, including Pell Grants and student loans; focusing national attention on education issues; and prohibiting discrimination and upholding civil rights.
According to USA Today, Trump’s directive came after the Education Department sent more than 1,300 employees termination notices as part of large-scale “reductions in force” across the federal government led by the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, under the guidance of billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.
