President Trump moves to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, a 46-year-old agency that oversees hundreds of millions in federal funding annually to Montana’s public schools and universities. The order is the latest in a series of developments that have Montana educators and parents wary, anxious and fearful about the potential impacts to the state’s most vulnerable youth.

During a White House speech just prior to Thursday’s signing, Trump attempted to assuage such concerns by explaining that the order would preserve collegiate financial aid programs, support services for students with special needs and other central departmental functions by shifting them to other agencies. But he made his position on the department itself clear, accusing it of “breathtaking failures” to address declining student achievement.

“Beyond these core necessities, my administration will take all lawful steps to shut down the department. We’re going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible. It’s doing us no good,” Trump said, describing a goal that will require congressional action to fully execute. Trump also quipped that his appointed head of the department, Linda McMahon, will “hopefully be our last secretary of education.”

According to a press release from the Montana Office of Public Instruction, Republican state Superintendent Susie Hedalen attended the signing in person and lauded the order as a move to “return education back to the states and local communities.” In a statement included with the release, Hedalen added, “We don’t need top-down mandates from DC bureaucrats.”

“With today’s actions, and future efforts from the president and Congress, we can get more resources directly to Montana’s classrooms, reduce burdensome federal reporting on schools, and get education back to basics,” Hedalen continued. “The president and secretary have made it clear that no formula funding or statutory grants that Montana schools rely on including Title I, Special Education, career and technical education, school nutrition, or others will be eliminated. Montana’s Office of Public Instruction is prepared to take the lead and administer these funds at the state level.”

In a joint statement responding to the news, the Coalition of Advocates for Montana’s Public Schools — a bloc of five of the state’s largest public education associations — said programs administered by the federal education department distribute more than $200 million to Montana schools annually. The federal funds are directed to a wide range of educational programs including support for lower-income students and accommodations for students with special needs, and often pass through Montana’s Office of Public Instruction on their way to local districts. 

A separate stream of funding known as Impact Aid supplies an additional $96 million in lieu of local taxes on property owned or held in trust by the federal government, such as national forests, military bases and tribal reservation lands. 

The coalition noted that it will “reserve judgment” on Trump’s order until more is known about the implications for federal funding and local education, but emphasized the importance of federal dollars to Montana schools, estimating that the federal share of overall funding for Montana’s K-12 system is 150% of the national average.

“As this situation unfolds, we will closely monitor developments and maintain open communication with our congressional delegation to ensure a thorough understanding of the intent and potential impact of these changes,” the groups wrote. “Our foremost priority remains the ongoing delivery of resources needed to serve students and communities effectively throughout Montana.”

Some education leaders in Montana have privately articulated a desire to quell potential panic, maintaining that as long as federal dollars continue to flow uninterrupted, state and local officials can work together to navigate the situation. But at the Montana Federation of Public Employees, which represents the bulk of school staff in the state, President Amanda Curtis is “ringing the bell” about the stakes involved in the administration’s recent decisions. Montana schools are already weathering a serious teacher shortage, Curtis told Montana Free Press, and recent chaos and uncertainty surrounding the federal education department only further complicates the ability to recruit and retain educators, as well as meet the needs of a diverse population of students.

“I have chosen to encourage Montanans to come together, regardless of political party, to not make it about this administration or Trump or billionaires or any of that, but to keep the focus on our constitutional promise to our kids,” Curtis said. “Our constitutional promise to our kids is that this Legislature will fund a system that helps every kid live up to their full potential, and that promise includes, depending on the school, maybe 50% federal funding.”

Widespread concern over the education department’s future had already been building in Montana and nationally before Trump’s Thursday order. On March 11, Secretary McMahon announced the termination of roughly 1,300 staff, or nearly half the department’s workforce, effective March 2. The layoffs were applied across a host of offices and do not include an additional 600 employees who voluntarily resigned or retired in the weeks prior to the announcement. Democratic attorneys general in 21 states promptly filed a lawsuit aimed at halting the layoffs, as did a pair of parents and a national disability rights group, citing fears that staff reductions at the department’s Office of Civil Rights could render it incapable of enforcing legal protections for students.

In an email response to MTFP March 20, OPI spokesperson McKenna Gregg wrote that Hedalen supports Trump’s efforts to “reduce unnecessary waste and bureaucratic red tape” at the education department, adding that “less micromanagement from Washington” will enable teachers to focus more fully on helping students succeed. Hedalen’s office also sought to reassure educators that federal funding for Montana schools remains unchanged, that impacts to state employees who manage federal programs have been minimal, and that financial resources will continue to flow “without disruption.”

“We understand parent concerns, especially those with children who have special needs,” Gregg wrote on Hedalen’s behalf, noting that there are “no plans” to reduce OPI staff who oversee federal programs at the state level. “We have received updated guidance from the Department of Education confirming that there will not be [an] interruption in services or funding for students with disabilities.”

Meanwhile, local officials are presiding over an atmosphere of confusion, uncertainty and angst. Hardin Public Schools Superintendent Tobin Novasio described the vibe in his schools as one of “trepidation.” Exactly how federal reductions and the all-out elimination of the education department might impact his district is an open question, yet he said he’s had half a dozen district staff approach him to ask whether their jobs — tied to federal funding and the local administration of federal programs — are safe. Novasio has reminded them that current contracts are good for the rest of the school year while acknowledging that impacts to any contracts heading into fall 2025 remain unknown.

Novasio added that one of his primary concerns is for the continued stability of federal Impact Aid, which supplies several million dollars in funding for the Hardin schools each year.

“What that does for us at Hardin is it just greatly expands our tax base,” Novasio said. “If that Impact Aid wasn’t in place, that tax burden would fall upon the local landowners to a great extent, much more than it does now.”

Officials in the Missoula County Public Schools have similarly acknowledged the fear sparked by executive orders relating to public schools, immigration, and diversity and equity programs while simultaneously reassuring parents and staff that they remain committed to local community values. Such messaging has reiterated the district’s commitment to collaborative efforts to improve student success and called attention to progress happening elsewhere, including the Montana Legislature’s work to bolster starting teacher pay through the bipartisan STARS Act.

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But recent federal developments involving education have received scant mention in state legislative proceedings, even as lawmakers work to improve the state’s financial contributions to its K-12 system. Rep. Jamie Isaly, D-Livingston, told MTFP he’s found that silence “frustrating.” From his vantage point on the House Education Committee, Isaly thinks the Legislature has made good strides in the first half of the 2025 session toward improving support for nationally certified teachers and specialist educators such as speech therapists — work he said could be impacted by funding cuts or delays at the federal level.

Isaly’s concerns stem not just from his position as a policymaker, but from his experience as a former career and technical education teacher in the Livingston public schools. Isaly said he often had special education teachers and paraeducators in the classroom alongside students with special needs, noting that those positions draw funding from federal programs like Title I.

“You’re always trying to accommodate them, to provide them with the best learning opportunity possible, and the more people you have engaged in that the more success those students will have,” Isaly said. “When a student has a para working with them that otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to use tools or be able to be on a computer and 3D print something, whatever the case may be, it was really important to them.”

For Cascade County parent Rebecca Richards, the continued opportunity for students with special needs to access public education is a top concern. Richards’ daughter received exactly that type of support during her K-12 schooling due to complex medical issues, and Richards said she’s “very fearful” that recent federal changes could impact her daughter’s college education. It’s not just the funding, Richards told MTFP, but the accountability offered by federal monitoring that she’s now anxious about. Pointing to a 2024 federal monitoring report, Richards said Montana has been found to be out of compliance with portions of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act in the recent past, adding that it’s not always easy for parents of children with special needs to navigate the system without help.

“The states need that federal oversight to make sure that the states are doing what they’re supposed to when it comes to children with disabilities,” Richards said, before pivoting to her own challenges in figuring out how to access resources for her daughter. “My husband and I, we both are educated, we knew how to go in, how to ask [questions], and we still had struggles in getting her what she needed. … There are so many families who don’t know how to ask, who don’t know how to find the resources.”