Florida at the White House, Applauding Disaster
Yesterday, Governor DeSantis, Moms for Liberty and other so-called “ed reformers” from Florida were at the White House applauding the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) – an act which could impact Florida with a $2.2 billion loss of education funding, a loss of 45,000 teachers and the reduction of key protections for our most vulnerable students.
Heavy sigh…
Yesterday, a room full of (what appeared to be) mostly priviledged elites gave a standing ovation to the signing of an Executive Order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, a department created to protect children with disabilities and ensure students from low income communities had properly funded schools (especially in Southern States), and “send education back to the states.” This was not a surprise. President Trump ran on the promise and Project 2025 provides a playbook as to how to conduct the dismantling.
Several people have written about the implications. Read Peter Greene’s take here or Jennifer Berkshire’s here or watch Josh Cowen take here.
Project 2025 recommended that Title I funds be turned into no-strings block grants that the states should use to fund vouchers. Title I, currently, provides federal dollars to support lower-income school districts and students. The funding would then ramp down over several years (be the end of the decae?) leaving states with an increased responsibility for funding education for children from low-income families. In other words, Title I will disappear and states will have to figure out how to replace the funding (or not?) themselves. Project 2025 also recommended that Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funds, which provide needed education services and supports for students with disabilities, should become no-strings blocks grant to states.
The Education Law Center has created a helpful tool projecting anticipated revenue losses to your state, should the President follow through with Project 2025’s plan.
Here are the projections for Florida.
If Title 1 funding were eliminated, Florida’s public schools would see an over $1 Billion reduction in funding and a projected job loss of 20,814 teachers (an estimated 12% reduction of Florida’s current ~175,000 teachers).
If IDEA funding was eliminated, Florida would see an additional loss of $845 Million and an additional job loss of almost 17,000 jobs (another 10% of instructional staff). Additionally, if IDEA becomes a block grant with no-strings attached, all federal protections for children with disabilities could be moot. If Florida chose to convert all current IDEA funding to individual student vouchers, it would amount to only $1,956 per eligible student. Remember, private schools accepting vouchers in Florida are currently under no obligation to provide IDEA services to students.
The loss of Impact Aid and other programs (like funding supporting English Language Learners or homeless children) is projected to result in an additional loss of $346 million and 6,900 teaching positions (another 4% of Florida’s teachers).
Total projected impact for Florida if (when?) 100% of federal education funding is eliminated:
- $2.2 Billion loss of federal funding
- 44,648 teachers (25.5% of Florida’s teachers)
Will Florida find the funding necessary to replace the loss? With no-strings attached, will Florida eliminate protections for our most at risk students? Time will tell.
I predict that, one day, people will look back on yesterday’s ceremony and wonder why so many people were applauding.
Reminder:
- Congress established the Education Department and any effort to abolish it would require congressional approval (but a lot of damage could be done in the meantime).
- The current Continuing Resolution temporarily funds government operations, including education, at previous year’s levels so the cuts to funding will not be immediate.
- With no-strings attached block grants, the elimination of protections could come before the elimination of funding.