In response to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon traveling to Louisiana today to stump for Donald Trump’s dangerous agenda, DNC Deputy Communications Director Abhi Rahman released the following statement: 

“Donald Trump is sending his billionaire puppet, Linda McMahon, to Louisiana as part of his national tour to sell lies to American families. Trump and McMahon are united in their goal to dismantle the Department of Education and leave families, especially those living in rural Louisiana, behind. Make no mistake: McMahon and Trump are setting our kids up for failure — all to add an extra zero to their billionaire buddies’ bank accounts. No matter how McMahon spins it, her anti-education policies put billionaires first and students last.” 

Donald Trump and Linda McMahon confirmed their goal to carry out Project 2025’s agenda to shut down the Department of Education — mass firings and funding freezes are just the “first step.” 

Laura Ingraham, Fox News: “Is this the first step on the road to a total shutdown?”

Linda McMahon: “Yes, actually, it is. Because that was the President’s mandate as directed to me, clearly, is to shut down the Department of Education …”

Reporter: “Do you want the Department of Education to be closed?” 

Trump: “Oh, I’d like it to be closed immediately.”

The Advocate: “Louisiana schools brace for possible cuts after Trump administration withholds $7 billion”

“Louisiana could lose out on more than $109 million, or about 14% of its federal K-12 education funding, if the Trump administration does not restore the grant money, according to an estimate by the Learning Policy Institute, which conducts education research.  …

“‘It really caught us all off guard,’ said Frank Jabbia, superintendent of the St. Tammany Parish school system. ‘This puts every district in a really difficult spot.’

Jabbia said his school system, which educates about 36,000 students, relies on the federal grants for teacher training, after-school tutoring, family activities and services for students learning English. Now the district will likely have to postpone the trainings, tutoring and family activities, and may have to use budget money to pay several employees whose salaries had been covered by the grants.

In Winn Parish, Superintendent Al Simmons said his small rural district might not be able to fill some open positions due to the funding pause. It also might have to find other money to pay for critical grant-funded employees, including literacy coaches who help train teachers and support struggling readers. …

If the money is not released, it could force after-school programs at three Baton Rouge schools to close, said Angel Nelson, president and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Louisiana, which runs the sites. …

“‘Now we’re not going to be able to give kids a safe place to learn and grow,’ she said. ‘It’s going to be devastating.’”

Shutting down the Department of Education will have disastrous consequences for tens of millions of families, threatening billions of dollars that support K-12 schools and working families. 

LA Times: “The prospect of dismantling the Department of Education has led to questions and fears over potential chaos over how key responsibilities and billions in federal funding — including handling federal financial aid, grants for disadvantaged students and civil rights enforcement — would be affected.

“The department has authority over financial lifelines that so many campuses and students rely on. The department’s K-12 programs serve more than 50 million students attending 130,000 public and private schools; federal grant, loan, and work-study assistance benefits more than 13 million post-secondary students.”

Inside Higher Ed: “College and university stakeholders worry that abolishing the Education Department could be catastrophic for institutions and students. State higher education officials, university administrators, nonprofit advocacy groups and students depend on the Education Department to oversee federal student aid, manage the student loan portfolio, investigate civil rights complaints and allocate billions of dollars in institutional aid, among other operations.” 

Project 2025, p. 350: “Title I …should be phased out …” 

TIME: “This loss of almost $18 billion in federal funding would be devastating. Eliminating Title I would harm nearly three million children throughout the U.S. … [and] could result in the loss of 180,000 jobs for educators … 

“Title I also provides federal funding for high-poverty schools.”

Trump’s billionaire-first budget drastically cuts education funding, a devastating blow to low-income families, to line the pockets of billionaires. 

Washington Post: “Targeting the Education Department, the president again put forward a roughly $12 billion cut, seeking to eliminate dozens of programs while unveiling new changes to Pell grants, which help low-income students pay for college.”

Washington Post: “Chief among the provisions in the bill is a plan to increase the number of credits, from 12 to 15 per semester, required for students to receive a maximum Pell Grant. That change would result in more than half of Pell recipients receiving smaller grants, according to the CBO. About 10 percent of recipients would completely lose access to the Pell Grant if Republicans advance plans to deny eligibility to anyone taking fewer than six credit hours, the agency said.”

K-12 Dive: “[T]he White House said it wants to eliminate $315 million for Preschool Development grants …

“Another $77 million is recommended for cuts to Teacher Quality Partnerships.”

Forbes: “The 2026 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education has been released, and it follows through on President Donald Trump’s promise of deep cuts for a department marked for elimination. … 

“The Federal TRIO Program, a program aimed at providing college outreach and support to individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, is eliminated. The Teacher Quality Partnership, aimed at boosting the teacher pipeline and adding diversity to the teacher pool, is also eliminated.”

Education Week: “Meanwhile, the Institute for Education Sciences, the department’s research arm, would see two-thirds of its budget disappear, dropping to $261.3 million from $793.1 million. It would retain reduced funding for its assessment activities—chiefly, the National Assessment of Educational Progress—but lose most of its funding that supports education research.”

Forbes: “[T]he funding for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the test that measures how U.S. students are doing, is still there, albeit reduced from $193 million to $137 million.”

CNN: “Teacher layoffs, bigger classes: Potential federal education cuts could hit GOP’s base hardest” 

“It’s the sort of place where President-elect Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ message resonated – but also where some of his proposed policies could hit hardest, especially his promise to eliminate the Department of Education and slash federal funds to public schools. …

“Even a slight reduction in those dollars could have devastating effects for students and their families.”