What might happen if the Education Department were closed? (The Hechinger Report)

December 18, 2024 by EdTrust

The dismantling of the Department of Education would likely harm the work of its Office for Civil Rights. That office, created by the same law that established the Education Department, investigates complaints against school districts, universities and other education institutions to ensure they are not discriminating against students and others based on race/ethnicity, disability, sex, age or national origin. During the first Trump administration, the office’s staffing declined by more than 10 percent because vacancies weren’t filled and staff weren’t replaced, according to Blair Wriston, senior government affairs manager with the left-leaning nonprofit EdTrust. That led to a backlog of cases and less rigorous enforcement.

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