LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. — State Rep. Peter Schweyer and other local leaders are denouncing President Donald Trump’s efforts to abolish the U.S. Department of Education.
Trump signed an executive order late last week to close the federal agency, which was founded in 1979.
Trump said the department is a failing education bureaucracy, and he wants to return more authority to states and local communities.
“Anyone cheering the end of the U.S. Department of Education doesn’t realize just what federal funding helps pay for in every school district in the state."State Rep. Peter Schweyer
Some have argued the department can’t legally be closed without Congress’s support.
The order also repeated threats to federal funding for educational institutions with diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Schweyer, majority chairman of the Pennsylvania House Education Committee, said in a Thursday statement that shuttering the U.S. Education Department could impact Pennsylvania school districts financially and operationally.
“We’ve spent a lot of time undoing the mistakes and malice of the Trump administration already,” Schweyer, D-Lehigh, said.
“And we’re ready to continue the work of fighting for every kid in every school and for every taxpayer here in Pennsylvania that has already delivered fair funding and better outcomes for students," he said.
“Anyone cheering the end of the U.S. Department of Education doesn’t realize just what federal funding helps pay for in every school district in the state.
"Like making sure kids from low-income families get a good education, programs and aides for students living with disabilities and Pell Grants to help low-income kids afford college or trade school.”
Other elected leaders react
State Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh, shared Schweyer’s statements on social media last week.
On the efforts to close the Education Department, Schlossberg wrote, “Clearly this is very bad.”
Other state legislators from the Lehigh Valley have not weighed in on the matter online.
“It’s causing chaos to distract us from what the real plan is. I don’t know what the real plan is at the moment, but I’d just be very cautious of what we think is actually going to happen.”Bethlehem Area School Board President Michael Faccinetto
Trump announced Friday his plans to delegate some of the agency’s functions to others in the federal government, according to reporting from The New York Times.
The Small Business Administration would manage the government’s student loan portfolio, and the Health and Human Services Department would take over nutrition programs and special education services.
On Monday, lawsuits were filed against the Trump administration for its efforts to close the Education Department, according to the same report.
Locally, some Lehigh Valley school directors already expressed concern about whether the agency’s potential closure would result in their districts losing federal funding.
At a Monday budget workshop, Bethlehem Area school directors discussed how the district could adjust its budget if it were to unexpectedly lose its $7.5 million in federal funding.
Bethlehem Area School Board President Michael Faccinetto said he thinks Congress would step in if federal education funds were in jeopardy.
Those dollars go toward students with disabilities, full-day kindergarten and other student initiatives, he said.
Faccinetto said Trump’s executive order appears to re-assign the department’s functions to other agencies rather than eliminating them.
“It’s causing chaos to distract us from what the real plan is,” Faccinetto said.
“I don’t know what the real plan is at the moment, but I’d just be very cautious of what we think is actually going to happen.”
