Last month, the United States Department of Education announced new partnerships with four agencies, the first step of the Trump administration's plan to dismantle the department.
The president has set his sights on fully eliminating the department to give states more power over schooling. Only Congress has the power to truly abolish the department, but many steps are being taken to disperse the responsibilities within it.
Functions of the Education Department
The Department of Education was created in 1979 under the Carter administration and is responsible establishing financial aid policies and dispersing funds. It is also responsible for enforcing equal access and discrimination laws, collecting data and managing other federal-level administration.
The department does not, however, have any control over curriculum or what is taught in schools, graduation requirements, or academic standards. Those are all under the control of the states.
Education programs will continue
Even if Congress were to eliminate the Education Department, the programs and laws that currently fall under that department wouldn't go away, said Gregory Plagens, a political science professor at Eastern Michigan University. Responsibility for administering those programs would have to move to other departments, he said.
Eliminating a department is very different from eliminating a program that currently falls under that department, Plagens said. For example, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which was signed into law in 1965, has language written into it that responsibility for administering the act falls under the Education Department. If the department were to be eliminated, that law would have to be revised to reassign responsibility to another entity, Plagens said.
Previously, the federal government included a cabinet-level agency called the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, from 1953 to 1979. The department administered programs in public health, education and social and economic security. In 1979, the department was eliminated, and the Education Department and the Department of Health and Human Services took its place.
Sometimes, when creating a new law, there is a logical department or government entity under which to assign the law, as in who will enforce or implement the program, Plagens said. Other times, a new law can create a new entity to oversee it.
New federal partnerships
The four new partnerships are between the Education Department and the departments of Labor, Interior, State, and Health and Human Services. Six new agency partnerships, as well as loan changes and other adjustments to education, will take effect July 1, 2026.
The partnership between the Education Department and the Labor Department will establish the Elementary and Secondary Education Partnership and the Postsecondary Education Partnership. The Labor Department will be responsible for overseeing federal K-12 programs and aligning them with future college and career goals, as well as administering college grant programs.
The Labor Department will also fully integrate postsecondary education programs into its department through the Postsecondary Education Partnership and will be responsible for the workforce development programs, such as TRiO, at postsecondary education institutions.
The Education Department and the Interior Department are collaborating to establish the Indian Education Partnership, which deals with Native American education.
The agreement states, “DOI will manage competitions, provide technical assistance, and integrate ED’s Indian Education programs with the suite of Native-serving programs DOI already administers."
These programs include systems for Native American students to improve their education.
The Education Department and State Department are collaborating on the International Education and Foreign Language Studies Partnership. This will control all programs under the Fulbright-Hays grant, which supports overseas projects in foreign languages.
HHS will work with the Education Department to form the Foreign Medical Accreditation Partnership, which deals with the accreditation of medical degrees. HHS will be responsible for evaluating the standards for medical schools in the U.S. and in other countries to ensure they are comparable.
HHS is also partnering with the Education Department for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School Partnership. This will aim to improve on-campus child care support for parents who are currently attending college.
Impact on EMU students
While federal student aid programs will be subject to change, they likely will not be eliminated. Given their nearly unanimous support, Pell Grants are unlikely to be affected. Congress will vote on funding federal college access initiatives, such as work study and public service loan forgiveness.
Proposed changes to the federal government's definition of a professional degree has sparked backlash.
In 1965, a professional degree was defined in a federal law as one that "signifies both completion of the academic requirements for beginning practice in a given profession and a level of professional skill beyond that normally required for a bachelor's degree."
However, in recent discussions of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill and student loan regulations, the professional degree loan cap was considered for only 10 degrees, based on those listed in the original definition. These include the following: Pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, law, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, podiatry and theology.
The plan could significantly impact how much students are allowed to take out in loans, depending on their career path.
The bill would eliminate the current Grad PLUS loan program, which allows students to borrow a maximum of the cost of attendance minus other financial aid. Without Grad PLUS, graduate students will face significant caps on their opportunities to take out loans. Those pursuing one of the ten "professional degrees” on the defined list will be able to borrow up to $50,000 per year, and up to $200,000 overall.
Students pursuing nursing, education, occupational therapy or other careers no longer on the list will have a loan cap at $20,500 per year, and graduate programs will be limited to only $100,000 overall.
Kim Lindquist, EMU’s interim director of nursing and director of nursing operations, explained the impact, especially within her field.
"This all comes at a time where we have a national nursing shortage, and one of the factors that is probably the most tied to the nursing shortage is the lack of nursing faculty," Lindquist said. "You have to have faculty to educate students, but you can’t become a faculty member unless you have an advanced degree.”
She also said that the dismantling of the Department of Education impacts grant approval and research contracts, and that the nursing program at EMU is already experiencing some of these issues.
“It’s frustrating to me," Lindquist said. "I’m not a political person by nature, but when I can see very direct examples of research initiatives that have been interrupted, and we think about what’s behind this as an ‘interest in efficiency,’ and I think those two things are a fight against each other."
University students could also see changes such as weakened civil rights protections, lack of accountability to universities, and more issues around loans and federal funding.
The full impact of these changes will not be felt for many months, but educators, administrators and students may see some effects sooner.
