President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 20 to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and assign educational power to state and local authorities, according to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. 

Professors and state representatives nationwide are preparing themselves for how this can affect institutions like Florida Atlantic University. FAU faculty members the University Press reached out to have not responded to requests for comment about the dismantling by time of publication. 

“The situation with the U.S. Department of Education is too speculative right now for us to offer any comment,” Lisa Metcalf, an FAU spokesperson, said in an email to the University Press on March 24. 

The University Press also reached out to the Department of Education in an email on April 4, but the department has not responded.

The executive order states, “Closing the Department of Education would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them.” This can only be passed by a majority vote in Congress. 

Free Application for Federal Student Aid, Title I, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and other federal programs are all administered by the U.S. Department of Education. 

“I think most of us are very concerned because we don’t know what the dismantling looks like,” said Robin Bartleman, a member of the Florida House of Representatives. 

One of the Department of Education’s primary functions is allocating federal funds for students in higher education. Through this department, students receive funds from Pell Grant, work-study, student loans and more.  

Bartleman shared that without financial support from federal funding, she wouldn’t have the opportunity to attend university. 

“It was all of those things [that] got me to where I am,” she said. “Is the next generation going to have these opportunities as we dismantle this very important department?”

The Department of Education is also responsible for upholding equality through the Office of Civil Rights. This division prohibits colleges and universities that receive funding from the Department of Education from discriminating against students based on race, gender, sexual orientation and more. Through this office, the ED can monitor schools’ compliance with the legal obligation to treat people equally. 

“We live in a state that doesn’t value diversity, equity and inclusion. Public education is the great equalizer because it gives everyone that chance,” Bartleman said. 

She said that students with special needs and disabilities are also positively impacted by the Department of Education through school funding, policy guidance and accommodations. 

Without the Department of Education, higher education professors said this decision would leave many people vulnerable. Daniel Collier, a professor at the University of Memphis, said students from low-income households will suffer the most from the discontinuation of the Department of Education. 

“They’re going to stop attending school because that’s money those people are relying on,” Collier said while stating that funding may not be distributed smoothly or timely in the coming school year because of major staff layoffs in the Department of Education.

According to Cecilia Orphan, a professor at the University of Denver, the Trump administration has already begun stripping grants and funds from universities like Columbia University for resisting the executive order. 

“He’s weaponizing the Office of Civil Rights to go after campuses that are trying to promote racial equity,” Orphan said. “It creates questions of whether or not you have the power to push back.”

Some college and university faculty members refrain from expressing their thoughts to avoid precautions, Collier said. 

“There’s a lot of faculty that have stopped speaking out because they’ll get in trouble. In some states, you can be fired without cause,” he said. 

In an attempt to avoid being targeted, Collier said some schools are removing students who speak out. 

“Institutions are going to do what they need to do to get the money to survive,” he said.

Orphan said it’s unclear what the future of the Department of Education and higher education will be, but she said people should advocate for them before a decision is made. 

“We need higher education to come together with a unified voice that says this is destroying the mission of higher education,” she said. “Until that happens, I think we’ll just continue to have this kind of breakdown, and a lot of people are going to suffer because of it.”

Sephora Charles is a Reporter for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email Charles at sephoracharl2024@fau.edu.