Eliminating the Department of Education: What it could mean for NYC

NEW YORK (PIX11) – President-elect Donald Trump made promises during his campaign to revamp the Department of Education in his return to the White House, but what could those changes mean for New York City schools?

Trump has mentioned wanting to eliminate the federal Department of Education, which was originally established in May 1980 by then-President Jimmy Carter.

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The Education Department helps fund education nationwide through programs like the Pell grant and Title 1 that help low-income students. For the 2020-21 school year, New York received more than $1,200,300 in Title 1 allocation.

Education officials also conduct research to improve the quality of education and investigate alleged discrimination in schools, among many other responsibilities.

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Now that Trump has been elected the 47th president of the United States, could he eliminate the Department of Education? At the very least, he can't do so single-handedly.

Dismantling the Education Department would require an act of Congress and it's not the first time Trump has attempted to do so. While serving his first Presidential term, Trump proposed merging the Education and Labor departments however the proposal did not make it to Congress.

Even if Trump may not be able to fully eliminate the Department of Education, he has proposed pressuring schools into getting rid of tenure and scraping diversity programs. He has also called for pulling federal funding for schools that teach Critical Race Theory, gender ideology, and more.

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Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024. More of her work can be found here .