Since the start of his second term, President Trump has begun taking steps to eliminate the department of education. This has many people wondering how it might impact schools and the resources they receive.

“The Department of Education is the federal agency that essentially administrates all of the funding that was assigned in Congress for things like Title One Funds, IDEA funds,” Wichita Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Addi Lowell said.

The education department also gives states money through Perkins grants for career and technical education classes. In an email he sent to us answering his department’s funding, USD 259 CTE director Timothy Hamblin says losing that money could impact the quality of education students receive.

 “What will happen with time is students will have to use older and older equipment and perhaps not have access to the latest and most up to industry standard equipment,” Hamblin said.

Even though there’s lots of uncertainty, the district is hopeful that the money will still make it to us, even if it gets distributed differently.

“So abolishing the Department of Education doesn’t necessarily get rid of the funding sources that are in play to support those students, um it would mean that the responsibilities of administering those funds would need to transfer to another federal department or division, um or a lot of the responsibilities for managing the allowable uses for those funds would go down to the state level,” Addi Lowell said.

If Trump does order the department of education to be closed, it’s something that might not happen right away and is sure to face lawsuits.