Utah education officials weigh-in on potential dissolution of Education Department
Carlene Coombs, Daily Herald file photo
The front of Spanish Fork High School is pictured Monday, May 20, 2024.President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take steps to close the Department of Education, multiple news agencies reported Thursday.
Dismantling the department, which accounted for $268 billion in spending in 2024, according to USA Spending, would mark a major step in Trump’s attempt to reduce the scale of the federal government.
There are a number of programs within the state of Utah and Utah County that receive funding from the Department of Education and may be impacted if the department were to dissolve.
Some education officials in the state aren’t pressing the panic button, though.
“We’re just moving forward and we’re doing our work and we wouldn’t actually be able to make any determinations until we saw what that order actually looked like,” said Ryan Bartlett, director of strategic communications for the Utah State Board of Education. “There’s the chance that the courts could review it and reject parts of it. There’s the chance that the U.S. Congress could overturn it.”
The Department of Education helps fund Title I, Part A, a program that gives financial assistance to Utah schools in which a high percentage of students come from low-income families, Bartlett said.
Federal funds are also provided for special needs programs and school lunch assistance statewide.
That is the case at Nebo School District, district spokesperson Seth Sorensen confirmed.
Overall, though, Nebo gets “very minimal” federal funding, according to Sorensen, with the majority of the funding coming from the state Legislature and local school board.
“I would say we’re kind of indifferent as a school district on (Trump’s) proposal to eliminate the department,” Sorensen said. “It will have some impacts, for sure, but because we have our local school board, and that’s really who kind of guides and directs us and is responsible for spending and funding, that’s really not going to impact us tremendously.”
Bartlett added that losing the Department of Education would not “necessarily” lead to the loss of funding for certain programs.
“They would just need to determine how much funding the states might still receive, what that would look like, how it would be distributed,” he said.
