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The looming impacts of President Donald Trump's coordinated efforts to
dissolve the U.S. Department of Education outweighs most every other concern among New Jersey school officials — and were the main focus of questions directed at Sen. Andy Kim during a conference of school principals and supervisors Friday. The annual legislative conference of the New Jersey School Principals and Supervisors Association fell one day after Trump signed an executive order to eliminate the Education Department. The move came shortly after 1,300 employees were laid off and
regional civil rights offices in the department were abruptly shut down. The White House alone cannot legally eliminate the Education Department. Congress would need to approve such a move. But Trump's cuts have already slashed it. The department's "final mission" is to "return education to parents," Education Secretary Linda McMahon has said in a public letter to the department. Trump supporters who favor abolishing the department are using "a simple line...its a fairly catchy line: 'We want education to be closest to families,'" Kim said. "Well, that's a falsehood." The federal government's role is to "supplement what we don't have," Kim said. "Communities and families in New Jersey can't do without that type of support." The federal government does not supervise curriculum in public schools. States and local school boards decide what children learn. Funding for K-12 schools comes mostly from state and local property taxes, but the U.S. Education Department provides funding for low-income students and children with disabilities. Nearly 175 school administrators from throughout New Jersey attended Friday's conference. Barring a few questions on how the state funds schools, every question directed at Kim, state officials and local lawmakers was about what would happen to their schools as a result of Trump's moves with the Education Department.
Funding for low-income students and those with disabilities
State Attorney General Matthew Platkin, who has filed several lawsuits with other states' attorneys general to block several Trump orders, said he would be amending one of those lawsuits to contest the legality of Trump's latest executive order to abolish the Education Department. "It is system that without question is being threatened, that millions of families depend on," said Platkin, who noted his wife is a school psychologist. "I can't get over how cruel it is, to punish those families," Platkin said, referring to fears raised to him by parents of children with learning disabilities that dismantling the Education Department could
threaten federal funding their children receive . Title 1 funding for low-income students and IDEA funding for students with disabilities are protected by decades-old laws. The Trump administration has said it will not touch these streams, but there is widespread worry these could eventually be cut in Trump's aggressive approach to reduce federal spending. Trump's executive order to dismantle the Education Department "sends a chill through the minds of every parent of a kid with a disability, every student who
depends on a Pell grant ," Platkin said. "These lawsuits are not about politics," he said. "Education is why people move here to New Jersey, and why people stay here." "Everyone can acknowledge that there is waste in government," he said, but not by "punishing parents... and we're going to tell that story." The U.S. Department of Education has been around since 1979, and "no administration has ever weaponized it this way," Platkin said. "We are going to keep fighting." Maintaining special services funding for children with disabilities was a primary concern for Parnell Beaubrun, supervisor of special services at Irvington Public Schools in Essex County, and other administrators. "We don’t know how we will survive if we stop receiving federal funds," Beaubrun told Kim. "We cannot pass the bill on to homeowners. This is the concern we want you to pass on to your colleagues in Washington." The diagnoses of neurological disorders in disabled students is paid for through Special Education Medicaid Initiatives, a program that taps into Medicaid funding. "I can't believe there isn't a Plan B," said state Sen. Angela McKnight, D-Jersey City, referring to the lack of any clear path forward from the state's congressional delegation should funding streams and other federal support to the state be cut in the federal budget. Congress has yet to pass a final budget bill; it passed a temporary measure on March 11.
School funding, teacher shortage, mental health crisis also a focus
The group of principals also raised concerns about school funding, the
ongoing teacher shortage , and the mental health crisis that school officials said they were seeing even among young children in K-8 schools. But at the top of their minds was the Trump administration's move to change how K-12 schools are run. Even if the administration does not touch federal funding streams to schools, it could still withhold funds until states comply with its priorities, said Benjamin Dworkin, Director of the Rowan Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship at Rowan University. The state received $1.2 billion in federal aid, and $900 million goes into Title 1 and IDEA, Dworkin said. "If all that money is not seamlessly directed to New Jersey through other agencies, most districts will have to face significant cuts," he said. The administration has signaled moving education funding to the Treasury Department. "Even if New Jersey keeps its $1.2 billion, it is entirely unclear what new conditions might come with them," Dworkin said. "In today's world it is not unprecedented for Washington to say, you can get the money, but only if you turn over every undocumented person ... or only if you teach history this way or teach science that way." "Maybe it will happen, maybe it won't," he said. "Rest assured, these are the kind of policy decisions that will dominate the next governor's education agenda, regardless of their party." Gov. Phil Murphy is filling out his last year in office.
