Without the Department of Education, Will Pennsylvania Students Survive? 

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 20th to reduce the U.S. Department of Education to its essential functions, taking its first steps by laying off nearly half its employees.  While it would require Congressional authority to wholly abolish a federal department, and the administration promises to still deliver on all statutory programs under the agency’s purview, many remain concerned about Title I funding, special education, accountability measures for student achievement, and the future of public education.  

However, this order supports the notion that the U.S. Department of Education’s main functions can—and should—return to the states. How would that look in Pennsylvania? 

Funding 

Federal dollars comprise the smallest portion of total education funding compared to state and local shares. Only 6.57 percent of our education revenue comes from federal sources, while 37.3 percent and 55.5 percent come from state and local sources, respectively.  

Moreover, Trump’s executive order doesn’t reduce funding for Pennsylvania public schools. If anything, the federal education activities will shift to other agencies: Health and Human Services will inherit special education oversight, and the Treasury Department will absorb the federal loans and grants programs.  

Accountability 

The U.S. Department of Education requires all states to test students on certain subject areas at various stages of the K–12 experience.  

Yet, Pennsylvania was already testing well before the federal agency required it to. The commonwealth’s robust statewide student assessment, the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA), started testing in 1992. PSSA started two years before the first federal law requiring statewide testing for some grade levels and ten years before the federal mandates of No Child Left Behind codified.  

But even with this “accountability” at the state and federal level, student achievement has remained stagnant nationwide and in Pennsylvania since the department’s inception. Today, less than half of PA’s 8th graders scored proficiently in reading or math. Also, more than 200,000 students remain trapped in the state’s lowest-performing public schools (despite increased spending at the federal, state, and local levels).  

The best form of accountability is customer satisfaction or, in this case, parental satisfaction. While many families rely on Pennsylvania’s public schools, 49 percent would choose a private school if money were not an issue. Those who made the switch must watch a portion of their student’s allotment of federal education dollars pass them by to the school district they have opted out of attending.  

Bringing Choice Back to the States 

Some states view this restructuring at the federal level as an opportunity to refocus those resources toward what students and families actually need and want in their states—rather than propping up institutions that have failed to serve them. For example, Oklahoma has requested that the federal government deliver the state’s share of federal dollars via one grant. The state then would distribute among schools based on need. State policymakers want to offer a “marketplace of solutions” for families of all income levels to access the school of their choice. 

For many Pennsylvania families, school choice programs are their only chance to secure a better education for their child. The proposed Lifeline Scholarships and the existing tax-credit scholarships—i.e., the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs—fund students rather than schools. Last year, EITC and OSTC helped 85,000 low- and middle-income students assigned to Pennsylvania’s lowest-performing public schools attend a high-quality school of their choice. Yet, Pennsylvania turns away tens of thousands from the opportunity to attend a better school for their needs. 

Moving away from centralized control over education toward flexibility at the state and local levels allows Pennsylvania lawmakers to address the needs of students and empower families. And this empowerment begins with more educational choice, not federal agencies.