How the Education Department Cuts Could Hurt Low-Income and Rural Schools
“President Trump’s efforts to shutter the U.S. Department of Education are in full swing.
On Thursday, he signed an executive action instructing U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education,” and to do so “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.”
Before that, the department had already announced it was shrinking its workforce by nearly half, with cuts to all divisions.
Meanwhile, the administration has promised that “formula funding” for schools, which is protected by law, would be preserved. That includes flagship programs like Title I for high-poverty schools, and the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP), which sends money to rural and low-income schools.
But nearly all the statisticians and data experts who work in the office responsible for determining whether schools qualify for that money will soon be out of jobs, making it unclear how such grants would remain intact.”
Read more at NPR.