As a journalist, I’ve spent my professional career writing about — and now, advocating for — changes to federal education policy. But focusing on issues from a national lens can miss the impact they have on actual students, particularly the day-to-day experiences of the students who have for too long been inadequately served by our nation’s public schools — Black and Latino students, those from low-income backgrounds, multilingual learners, students with disabilities, and more.

Trump’s soundbytes of his education policy proposals have never explained what they might mean for real people. Organizations like EdTrust and others have shouted from the rooftops about how dangerous it is to abolish the U.S. Department of Education, but it can be difficult for the average person to fathom, for example, what the loss of billions of dollars in federal Title I funding could mean for schools in high-poverty districts. But it is essential that everyone be aware of how dangerous those policies will be for real children.

As journalists across the country have been diving in to Project 2025, Trump’s campaign rhetoric, and the records of those likely to join the next administration, they are uncovering what his promises to abolish the U.S. Department of Education, dramatically cut federal education aid, institute large-scale deportation raids on immigrant communities, eliminate protections for LGBTQ+ students and student of color, attack the teaching of diverse curricula and honest history, and more would mean for students where they live and learn.

The implications would be both broad and deep, affecting students in every state — red and blue —gutting school budgets and bringing consequences for all sorts of students. Among the journalists’ most jarring findings:

• Tennessee once had a law on the books banning students with disabilities from public school. But under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), that kind of discrimination is illegal. Eliminating the U.S. Department of Education could eliminate federal aid toward the additional costs of the mandatory education of students with disabilities — comprising about 10% of students in the state — along with leaving enforcement of civil rights protections unclear.
• Colorado, already near the bottom of rankings on per-pupil funding, would face increased financial strain on its schools and educators with the loss of 10% of its education funding.
• In California, where more than 115,000 children are undocumented and half have at least one immigrant parent, schools could be upended by immigration raids — resulting in increases in chronic absenteeism, severely negative effects on students’ mental health, and limits on family engagement.
• Nearly 10,000 four year olds in Michigan are eligible for federally funded Head Start pre-K, a population that likely couldn’t be accommodated in the state-funded public preschool population.
• In Connecticut, home to Secretary of Education nominee Linda McMahon, less-resourced districts like Bridgeport and Hartford, stand to lose nearly 20% of their total education funding, which comes from various federal sources. Meanwhile, wealthier neighboring districts face smaller cuts of under 2%.
• Texas in 2018 — during the first Trump administration — was under federal scrutiny for keeping the number of students receiving special education services artificially low by instituting a cap. More than 700,000 Texas students are in special education, a number still below national trends. The kind of oversight that ensured their equitable educational services could end if IDEA ends and education responsibilities are returned to the states.

These numbers and facts are worrisome and portray the myriad threats to American students’ education, beginning in pre-school and continuing through college and beyond. As EdTrust works to understand — and fights against — the harmful impacts of these vicious attacks on the U.S. education system, it will be incumbent on everyone who cares about equity in education to keep a vigilant eye on stories like these and others to come. Dismantling the Department of Education — or severely cutting its funding — will take act of Congress, so let your voice be heard.