Just adding a little flexibility here. The 2026 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education has been released, and it follows through on President Donald Trump’s promise of deep cuts for a department marked for elimination. The budget summary begins by quoting a portion of Trump’s speech from his signing of the executive order calling for the elimination of the department. “But we’re going to be returning education very simply back to the states where it belongs,” he promised. The proposed budget seems to indicate that not only will states get more responsibility for education, but additional costs as well. Per Trump’s promise, the proposal leaves Title I (support for schools with low income students) and IDEA (funding for students with special needs) intact. But billions of dollars for other programs have been slashed. The budget proposes a new item, the K-12 Simplified Funding Program, which “would consolidate eighteen currently funded formula and competitive grant programs for elementary and secondary education into a single State formula grant program.” The stated goal is to eliminate “siloes and bureaucratic red tape," however it appears to eliminate more than that. MORE FOR YOU WWE SmackDown Results, Winners And Grades On May 30, 2025 Caleb Plant Vs. Armando Resendiz Fight Card: What Time Does It Start? ‘NYT Mini’ Crossword Hints For Saturday May 31: Clues And Answers For Today’s Game The K-12 SFP funding request is for $2 billion. The 2024 levels of combined funding for the 18 programs folded into K-12 SFP is over $6.5 billion. The consolidation comes with a $4.5 billion funding cut. One program alone, aimed at supporting effective instruction, was previously funded at $2.19 billion. Other programs to be combined into the K-12 SFP include programs for addressing literacy, supporting at-risk youth, arts in education, and American history and civics education. Community learning centers and rural education supports would also be lumped in. The federal government previously provided $380 million to help fund state assessments; that would also be part of the K-12 SFP. The budget request repeatedly notes that this combining of programs would give the states flexibility and “discretion to support any activity that was previously allowed” under the previous program, but states will need a great deal of flexibility to make up for a $4.5 billion cut in funding for these programs. I have emailed the department for clarification of what certainly appears to be a cut on top of the consolidation and will add their reply if it arrives. Additionally, there are ten more programs under elementary and secondary education that have been cut entirely. Elimination of teacher-supporting grant programs like the Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) program and teacher and school leader incentive grants were explained with the line, “Elimination of this program is part of the Administration’s overall effort to restore fiscal discipline and reduce the Federal role in education.” The grants used by states to help with migrant education were likewise eliminated. Others, like Full Service Community Schools grants were eliminated with the note, “States and localities, not the Federal government, are best suited to determine whether to support the activities authorized under this program or similar activities within their own budgets and without unnecessary administrative burden imposed by the Federal government.” English Language Acquisition, am $890 million program to support students learning English as a new language, was also cut with this language. In other words, if states think they want to do it, they can budget the funds themselves. Those eliminated programs represent another $1.1 billion in cuts. Meanwhile, the Charter Schools Program, with its history of fraud and waste, will get an additional $60 million. The IDEA grant funding is actually increased by around $650 million, but the budget request also consolidates other grant programs into the IDEA grants for state. Those additional programs (which include the pre-school grant program) account for the increase in IDEA funding, but it will apparently be up to states whether to use the funds for their original purpose. While the request keeps Career and Technical Education fairly steady, with a $2.3 million drop in national programs. However, the $729 million for adult education is eliminated entirely ("States and localities, not the Federal government, are best suited etc…") Beyond the K-12 funding, there are other cuts in the proposal. International Education and Foreign Language Studies are zeroed out because “these programs are inconsistent with Administration priorities and do not advance American interests or values.” The Federal TRIO Program, a program aimed at providing college outreach and support to individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, is eliminated. The Teacher Quality Partnership, aimed at boosting the teacher pipeline and adding diversity to the teacher pool, is also eliminated. Everything under the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the research wing of the department, is an asterisk until the administration is done “reimagining a more efficient, effective, and useful IES.” However, the funding for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the test that measures how U.S. students are doing, is still there, albeit reduced from $193 million to $137 million. The salary request for the department moves from the 2025 figure of $2.769 billion to $2.514 billion (with IES still undetermined) even though personnel has been cut from 4,099 in 2024 to a projected 2,179 (though there are still personnel issues to be sorted out in court). The Office of Civil Rights would be cut from $140 million to $63 million. Unlike her predecessor Betsy DeVos, Education Secretary Linda McMahon did not request that Special Olympics funding be cut. This is a budget request, likely to be debated and revised and kicked around the halls of Congress before its done. This proposal is a far cry from actually eliminating the department, but it would certainly undercut the states’ ability to support their students. Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions