Professors at the University of Rhode Island discussed how the potential removal of the United States Department of Education would reduce federal student aid under the new presidential administration.
The Republican party has supported the removal of the Department of Education since it was established in 1980, according to URI professor political science Ashlea Rundlett.
A centerpiece of Project 2025, a political initiative by the Heritage Foundation, was to abolish the Department of Education, according to Marc Hutchison, professor and chair of URI’s political science department.
The purpose of the Department of Education is to instill equality of education, collect data and influence global competitiveness in the United States, according to the department’s website .
“Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated,” according to Project 2025’s mission statement to the Department of Education.
The removal of this department from the federal government is founded on the idea that educational independence is most likely to flourish if left to the families, states and local governments, according to section three of Project 2025 policy agenda .
“It raises the cost of education without raising student achievement,” according to the aforementioned Project 2025 mission statement.
The mission statement to the Department of Education states that having discussions about the dimensions of diversity distracts students from learning traditional workplace skills– examples of which are not explained in the statement.
“What I worry about is, in terms of higher education, is just the stifling of open thought, enforcing a sort of inattention to the very real issues of race and gender and sexuality that are the kinds of things that we should be talking openly about,” Rob Widell, an associate professor and chair of the URI department of history, said.
To eliminate the Department of Education, there must be complete agreement within Congress, according to Rundlett. Without unanimity, the department is likely to be dissolved to other branches of the federal government. In the case of student loans, the Department of Treasury will take responsibility for federal aid and debt.
“[The future presidential administration is] going to really look at student loans and cut back on federal aid, which would just be devastating to students,” Hutchison said.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness, a program within the Department of Education that has benefited teachers and state employees, is also at risk for abolishment, according to Hutchison. Protections for faculty are also suspected to decrease.
Former president and president-elect Donald Trump made the decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement in 2017, and is suspected to do it again, according to Hutchison. The Paris Agreement is an international plan to reduce the global climate by enforcing environmental awareness in economic decision making.
“We’re probably going to backslide on our commitment to environmental protections,” Hutchison said.
Mental health resources are funded by the university rather than by the federal government, according to Hutchison. The state of Rhode Island has protections for reproductive health, like abortion access, but Hutchison suspects that loopholes allowing the shipment of the morning after pill may be federally blocked.
“I don’t think as a university that we’re gonna see massive changes,” Hutchison said. “We have our own sort of independence and we are in a state that values higher education.”
Situated in New England within a blue state, URI may be more protected from possible changes as new leadership gets sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2025, according to Hutchinson.