NAME Releases Strong Statement Supporting the Work of the U.S. Department of Education

NAME Supports the Vital Work of the
U.S. Department of Education

The National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) applauds the great value of the 46-year-old U.S. Department of Education and knows the incoming efforts of the Trump administration to abolish it would be a grave mistake, negatively affecting young people nationwide. Ironically, then-President Jimmy Carter, who died Dec. 29, 2024 at the age of 100 and whose life and service the nation currently celebrates, on Oct. 17, 1979, signed a bill into law creating the Department of Education. Spun out of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the goal was to make education a top priority.

Project 2025, a blueprint for actions by the incoming administration of president-elect Donald Trump, is the newest Republican effort dating back to Ronald Reagan in the 1980s to eliminate the federal Education Department. Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota has introduced a bill to kill the agency. Even though pre-K through 12 education is controlled and funded by local school boards, property taxes and states, NAME knows ending the U.S. Department of Education would be detrimental to young people.

The Department’s mission statement explains that it serves the nation’s schools by:

Promoting student achievement
Preparation for global competitiveness
Ensuring equal access to education for students.
Backstopping state and private efforts in education
Pushing for the increased involvement of families, students and communities in federal education programs
Pushing for improvements in the quality and usefulness of education through federally supported research, evaluation and sharing of information
Enhancing the coordination of federal education programs
Improving the management of federal education activities
Boosting the accountability of federal education programs

The agency’s multibillion-dollar budget funds numerous education grant programs, including sending extra money to schools that serve high-poverty populations. It also helps schools finance special education services for students with disabilities. Funding additionally supports schools’ efforts to educate multilingual learners.

NAME knows that removing the U.S. Department of Education would leave millions of students in public schools with little chance of receiving an equal shot at a good education even if the department’s functions are parted out to other federal agencies as is being proposed. Additionally, the department funds educational research, issues student loans, helps students qualify for college financial aid and is behind Pell Grants, which provide funding for college students with greater needs. The agency also investigates school violations of civil rights laws, which NAME knows likely made it a bigger target for elimination.

What’s clear to NAME is the U.S. Department of Education continues to provide vital equalizing services and financing to the nation’s schools. Eliminating it would be a terrible mistake.

January 2025

This and other NAME Position Statements can be downloaded on the ADVOCACY page.