Trump's budget calls for a 15% funding cut to the Education Department
Source: NPR
June 2, 2025 4:33 PM ET
The Trump administration has released new details of its vision to wind down the U.S. Department of Education. The budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 calls for a 15% funding cut to the department and a handful of changes to key K-12 and higher education programs. Here are five things to know:
1. The document renews President Trump's commitment to close the department
Last month, a federal judge blocked Trump from carrying out his executive order calling for the education secretary to close the Education Department. Nonetheless, the proposed budget summary begins with a quote from Trump on the day he signed that executive action: "We're going to be returning education very simply back to the states where it belongs."
Overall, the proposal "reflects an agency that is responsibly winding down," the document says. Still, this summary requests $66.7 billion for the department, making it clear that the dismantling of the agency will be a marathon, not a sprint.
2. Title I funding isn't going anywhere
Title I, one of the two most important streams of federal funding to K-12 schools, provides extra help to districts that serve neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. Public school advocates have fretted that the administration's ultimate goal is to disrupt or even wind down this funding, as called for in the conservative policy playbook Project 2025. But this budget request would leave Title I funding levels where they've been the previous two years: just over $18 billion.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2025/06/02/nx-s1-5420677/trump-budget-education-department-financial-aid
The Executive Branch cannot unilaterally "close a Department". That is the job of Congress.