--- title: What Does the Department of Education Actually Do? description: After Trump signed an Executive Order to dismantle it, take a look at the history of the Department of Education and what it actually does. canonical: https://time.com/7270145/what-does-the-department-of-education-do/ author: Rebecca Schneid article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-03-20T15:00:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2025-03-21T12:55:43.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: What Does the Department of Education Actually Do? og:description: Here's a look at the history of the Department of Education and what it actually does. og:url: https://time.com/7270145/what-does-the-department-of-education-do/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7897b8dcf7665176/6998c50a83ec372bbdc7a6d9/GettyImages-2204718967.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5568 og:image:height: 3132 og:image:alt: Department Of Education Plans To Lay Off Half Of Its Staff og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Does the Department of Education Actually Do? twitter:description: Here's a look at the history of the Department of Education and what it actually does. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7897b8dcf7665176/6998c50a83ec372bbdc7a6d9/GettyImages-2204718967.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Does the Department of Education Actually Do? > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Rebecca Schneid](https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/)  ## Rebecca Schneid Reporter Updated: Mar 21, 2025 12:55 PM UTCPublished: Mar 20, 2025 3:00 PM UTC  The headquarters of the Department of Education are shown on March 12, 2025 in Washington, D.C. The headquarters of the Department of Education are shown on March 12, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Win McNamee—Getty Images  by [Rebecca Schneid](https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/)  ## Rebecca Schneid Reporter Updated: Mar 21, 2025 12:55 PM UTCPublished: Mar 20, 2025 3:00 PM UTC On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order titled “[Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities](https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/improving-education-outcomes-by-empowering-parents-states-and-communities/),” that attempts to dismantle the Department of Education. It directs newly-instated Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “return authority over education to the States and local communities.” Trump said that the department will still keep some “core necessities," and that Congress will vote on whether or not to abolish, since only Congress can officially dismantle a government agency. “The Democrats know it’s right. I hope they’re going to be voting for it,” Trump said at Thursday’s [press briefing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkPVRfqMnQ8) about signing the Executive Order. “Because ultimately, it may come before them.” The historic gutting of the department is part of the charge that has defined the first few weeks of Trump’s second term. Led by his Department of Government Efficiency \[DOGE\], under the watchful eye of Elon Musk, the President has made great strides to make the government smaller by implementing major cuts and funding freezes across the board. On March 11, news came that 50% of the Department of Education was set to be laid off—part of its “final mission,” according [to the department’s website](https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-initiates-reduction-force), which stated that “impacted department staff will be placed on administrative leave beginning Friday, March 21st.” Speaking to TIME in early March, Jonathan E. Collins, an assistant professor of political science and education at Columbia University's Teachers College, said: “We’re more likely to continue to see what we've been seeing from the Trump Administration. Gutting all the activity underneath it and basically make it \[the Department of Education\] a shell of itself.” Amid concern and confusion as to what the future holds under the Trump Administration, here’s a look at the history of the Department of Education and what it actually does: ## **When was the Department of Education established?** The origins of the Department of Education can be traced back to 1867, when the first Department of this name was [established by Congress](https://federaleducationpolicy.org/2011/02/19/1867-act-to-establish-a-federal-department-of-education/). Its charge back then was very different and mostly focused on ​​collecting statistics about schools and disseminating some best educational practices. Due to concern that the department would have too much purview over schools, it was then demoted to an Office of Education under different agencies. The Department of Education as we know it today was established by Congress in the 1979 [“Department of Education Organization Act,” ](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-726/pdf/COMPS-726.pdf)after calls for expanded federal funding in education and “national efforts to help racial minorities, women, people with disabilities, and non-English speaking students gain equal access to education,” [according to the department’s website.](https://www.ed.gov/about/ed-overview/an-overview-of-the-us-department-of-education--pg-1) Collins has pointed out how the department is in its “infancy” in comparison to other agencies. “We won’t even have begun to fully see how the Department of Education can grow and transform into the best version of itself it can be… the abolition discussion has clouded that fact,” Collins said during a follow-up phone call on March 20, ahead of Trump signing the Executive Order. “We’ve had education inequality for a long time. We’ve had it longer than we’ve had the Department of Education. The persistence of it just underscores the need for some federal agency that is committed to this," he said. ## **How big is the Department of Education?** The Department of Education employed around 4,200 employees last September, [according to the Office of Personnel Management](https://www.fedscope.opm.gov/ibmcognos/bi/v1/disp?b%5Faction=powerPlayService&m%5Fencoding=UTF-8&BZ=1AAABnsT72MN42oVOsW6DQAz9mTNph0Y%5FwyVhYIDjUBiANLBXlFzSqsBFcB3y9xUwpFWGvidL9vN7lp2yWJdVcVRpHIzWDDqNn4DocyNI4jZU6PncQ0%7EtfIHRZiO5UKREtAWiZ2fKqvAo94ew2gdASWN6q3sLlJxNe9IDiAg87OtOgxuvDnXzVV%7E0%5FKa6a2tune7tCkQMlFyXzV%7E73QWEL0Aov4dhmTLT248p68SlXMsiz5Ws0iLPw0wF%7E%5FWc6DU4IzKOiJwjYwyZQEbIJjIWXnTf3IAQ6ASEYdsC%5FpkZ7eMpQJ8B7YBcBNIc6B3IXwR%5FF9gMIHey%7EwKfOXfLO3MtTyz4AbZLbJc%3D), which accounted for about 0.2% of overall federal employment last year—the smallest staff of the 15 Cabinet agencies. **Read More:** [_What Will Happen to Student Loans If the Department of Education Is Closed Down?_](https://time.com/7265794/what-will-happen-to-student-loans-if-department-of-education-closes/) ## **What does the Department of Education do?** The Department of Education has many different and varied responsibilities under its current formation and governs many offices including the Federal Student Aid (FSA), Institute of Education Sciences (IES), Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS). Under the FSA, the Education Department manages the $1.693 trillion outstanding federal student loan balance, as well several student aid programs like the Pell Grant and work study. The department is the [largest source of loans](https://educationdata.org/student-loan-debt-statistics) for college students. The department also provides 13.6% of funding for public K-12 education, according to the [Education Data Initiative](https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statistics), sending funding streams that include Title I—which describes federal allocation of supplemental financial assistance to school districts/schools with a high percentage of children from low-income families—as well as grants under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), providing money to districts to serve and teach students with disabilities, and grants for things like adult rehabilitation services. The department [collects data](https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds) on education facilities nationwide, and enforces [non-discrimination and civil rights laws ](https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/civil-rights-laws)in federally funded schools, including [Title VI ](https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/civil-rights-laws/race-color-and-national-origin-discrimination/education-and-title-vi)and [Title IX](https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/civil-rights-laws/title-ix-and-sex-discrimination). Collins pointed out that Title I, Title IX, and programs at the federal level create an equalizing factor that helps to cut through education inequalities between states, creating “incentives for continuity.” “This is the problem of pursuing so much responsibility and discretion at the state level,” he said. “The potential danger \[with dismantling the Department\] is that you're putting a lot of responsibility on the backs of these education agencies across states that are already strapped when it comes to their capacity, and you're creating an environment where \[a person’s\] educational experience will become heavily dependent on the state they live in” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7270145/what-does-the-department-of-education-do/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7270145/what-does-the-department-of-education-do/"},"headline":"What Does the Department of Education Actually Do?","datePublished":"2025-03-20T15:00:51.000Z","dateModified":"2025-03-21T12:55:43.000Z","description":"After Trump signed an Executive Order to dismantle it, take a look at the history of the Department of Education and what it actually does.","url":"https://time.com/7270145/what-does-the-department-of-education-do/","keywords":["Education","Donald Trump","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7897b8dcf7665176/6998c50a83ec372bbdc7a6d9/GettyImages-2204718967.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rebecca Schneid","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/rebecca-schneid/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7897b8dcf7665176/6998c50a83ec372bbdc7a6d9/GettyImages-2204718967.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Department Of Education Plans To Lay Off Half Of Its Staff","caption":"Department Of Education Plans To Lay Off Half Of Its Staff","creditText":"Win McNamee—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/education/","name":"Education"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7270145/what-does-the-department-of-education-do/","name":"What Does the Department of Education Actually Do?"}}]}] ```