President Trump, in a March 20 executive order, called for the federal Department of Education to be closed—after he’d already fired about half of the department’s approximately 4,000 workers nine days prior.
On March 24, two lawsuits were filed in federal courts—one in Massachusetts, and one in Maryland—challenging the legality of the move to shutter the department. In the interim, Nevada education experts weighed in on what’s at stake.
Many conservatives praised the move to close the DOE, including Gov. Joe Lombardo. He wrote in an editorial that ran at Breitbart.com and in the Reno Gazette Journal: “By returning curriculum to the state and district level, we will finally be able to teach common sense instead of Common Core.” He called the order “one of the most influential reforms yet” of Trump’s presidency.
Beth Smith, a Washoe County School Board trustee, talked to the RN&R over the phone. She pointed out that curriculum is already determined at the state and district level.
“The federal Department of Education has never been in control of curriculum or state-level decision-making for the education of students,” Smith said, specifying that she was speaking on her own behalf, and not on behalf of the board or the district.
According to the American Federation of Teachers: “The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort that is not part of No Child Left Behind, and adoption of the standards is in no way mandatory.” Nevada is one of 40 states that use Common Core standards.
The RN&R reached out to Gov. Lombardo’s office to request clarification on how curriculum control would be returned to states and districts, but did not receive a response by press time.
Said Smith: “The No. 1 thing that I have been doing—and that I encourage people to do—is to understand that we are under a misinformation attack about education and the Department of Education. Right now … each state has 100% state control over the standards of their school, children’s education, and what it is that they’re learning. … The states have always had the authority, and it’s very important to understand what an attempt to dissolve the Department of Education really is. The Department of Education is primarily responsible for protecting, feeding and then funding certain children who have specific needs.”
The DOE provided the Washoe County School District with about $37 million this fiscal year in federal grants for initiatives for English learners, family violence prevention, after-school programs, school improvements and other needs. In addition, the district has federal revenue in reserve for its Nutrition Services Fund (under the National School Lunch Program) in the amount of $29.5 million.
“Right now, the lion’s share of (Department of Education funding) goes to Title I schools,” said Smith. (Those are schools with a high concentration of low-income families. Washoe County has 52 of them.) “And it provides those schools directly with money that they need to create an equitable learning environment for those students.” She added that this includes children who are homeless and/or living with other risk factors.
What would be lost?
On March 21, the Nevada State Democratic Party held a press conference in which politicians and educators stated their opposition to Gov. Lombardo’s stance and discussed what would be lost should the DOE be eliminated.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said that special-education funding would be cut for 60,000 students with disabilities, and Pell Grants for 41,000 college students would be eliminated.
“Bottom line, this isn’t leadership,” said Ford—who credited some of his own success to having participated in Upward Bound, a DOE-funded program, as a high schooler. “This is neglect. This is a governor who would rather cozy up to Trump than stand up for Nevada’s kids.”
Said State Sen. Angie Taylor: “These are students with amazing potential (who) need the extra support. This is extra support they stand to lose because of this administration’s recklessness.”
Also potentially on the chopping block in Nevada: Programs for gifted and talented students, $1.4 million for rural education programs, and $38 million for career and technical programs, known as CTE.
Tomas Macaluso, principal at North Valleys High School, said during the press conference that CTE programs are important not only for the career education they offer, but also as a tool to help combat absenteeism.
Macaluso elaborated in a phone interview: “If you’re having kids pick courses that, one, they really enjoy, and two, they see the relevance of for the future, they’re far more likely to come to school to engage in that work.”
According to WCSD data, the graduation rate for CTE students in the district in 2024 was 94%, whereas the overall graduation rate that year was 81.9%
Are the cuts legal?
Following Trump’s executive order, many expressed doubts about whether the president could legally shutter the DOE and withhold education funds.
According to Alexander Marks, deputy executive director of field and communications for the Nevada State Education Association, “Congress is the only body that can get rid of the Department of Education.”
The National Education Association—the NSEA’s parent organization—is one of the plaintiffs in the Maryland lawsuit.
Marks explained: “The argument is: You fired half the staff, which was reckless, and then you basically signed the EO, which is unconstitutional. The effect is they’re trying to get rid of the Department of Education without having to go through Congress.”
He likened Trump’s layoff strategy to “death by a thousand cuts without having to go through the proper channels.”
What if the DOE were to end up closing despite the two lawsuits? Dawn Etcheverry, the NSEA’s president, speculated: “I believe the states will be scrambling to pick it up, because you’ll see our lowest economic schools, our special ed students, our rural districts who receive that funding, all of a sudden have no funding for their educators or their classrooms.”