--- title: Trump Fires 13 Members of Education Research Board description: The Trump Administration fired the National Board for Education Sciences, all appointed by Biden. The future of its work is now unclear. canonical: https://time.com/7291039/trump-administration-fires-education-research-board/ author: Nik Popli article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-06-04T13:18:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-11T00:44:19.119Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Fires 13 Members of Education Research Board og:description: The Administration fired the National Board for Education Sciences. The future of its work is now unclear. og:url: https://time.com/7291039/trump-administration-fires-education-research-board/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6b359b54a788aaf/6998c72107a30da1c577d0d3/GettyImages-2206133236.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Trump Signs Executive Order To Begin Dismantling Education Department og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Fires 13 Members of Education Research Board twitter:description: The Administration fired the National Board for Education Sciences. The future of its work is now unclear. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6b359b54a788aaf/6998c72107a30da1c577d0d3/GettyImages-2206133236.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Administration Fires 13 Members of Key Education Research Board, Citing ‘Partisan Influence’ > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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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 [Nik Popli](https://time.com/author/nik-popli/)  ## Nik Popli Staff Writer Jun 4, 2025 1:18 PM UTC  President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order about dismantling the Education Department alongside Education Secretary Linda McMahon at the White House in Washington, DC, on March 20, 2025. President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order about dismantling the Education Department alongside Education Secretary Linda McMahon at the White House in Washington, DC, on March 20, 2025. Chen Mengtong—China News Service/VCG via Getty Images  by [Nik Popli](https://time.com/author/nik-popli/)  ## Nik Popli Staff Writer Jun 4, 2025 1:18 PM UTC The Trump Administration fired all 13 Biden-appointed members of a key federal education research board last month, a move that drew sharp rebuke from former members amid the Administration’s ongoing campaign to dismantle the Department of Education. The firings, carried out on May 23, targeted the National Board for Education Sciences (NBES), which Congress established in 2002 to advise the Department of Education’s research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The board—whose members include researchers, educators, and civic leaders—had been tasked with shaping the Department’s $900 million research agenda, including approving priorities, overseeing peer-reviewed grants, and advising on efforts to close achievement gaps across race, income, and disability status. The future of that work is now unclear, as the new Administration has slashed much of that spending. The dismissals are the latest blow to a board that has [struggled for more than a decade](https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/researchers-balk-at-trumps-last-minute-picks-for-ed-science-board/2020/12) to maintain its statutory role. For much of President Donald Trump’s first term, he did not appoint enough members to NBES to fill the 15-member board. They didn't hold any meetings over those four years, according to the board's web page. “We can confirm that the Department fired thirteen Biden appointees to the National Board for Education Sciences on May 23,” said Madi Biedermann, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications under Education Secretary Linda McMahon, in a statement to TIME. “One of the core duties of a board member is to ensure that activities are objective, nonideological, and free of partisan influence—they failed.” Biedermann cited poor student outcomes, excessive spending on research contracts, and the alleged politicization of federal research as justification for the purge. She said new appointees will be announced to “drive forward President Trump and Secretary McMahon’s vision” for education reform, which emphasizes decentralization and a sharp reduction in the federal government’s role. “As reflected in the dismal results of the recent Nation’s Report Card, these board members stood by as student outcomes declined nationwide, oversaw research contracts that took gross advantage of the American taxpayer without delivering improvements in teaching and learning, and allowed partisan ideologies to seep into taxpayer-funded research and development,” Biedermann said. But former board members and education advocates say the firings are part of a broader and deeply political effort to discredit scientific research and roll back protections for vulnerable student populations. Shaun Harper, a University of Southern California professor who was among those dismissed, said he wasn’t surprised by the Trump Administration’s decision but disagreed with how they have characterized the board’s work. “We committed to spending four years in the unpaid role because we all want the best for our democracy,” he wrote in an [op-ed for TIME published Wednesday](https://time.com/7290996/trump-fired-education-experts/).“We approached our work as experts, not as politically-polarizing activists who somehow sought to advance anti-American agendas.” “Without knowing or even asking what this entailed, it is possible that the Trump Administration presumed this to be a hotbed of DEI activities that privileged wokeness over merit,” he added. “I never participated in nor witnessed this. There is no evidence of such wrongdoing.” The Trump Administration has made no secret of its disdain for the Department of Education itself. Trump has vowed repeatedly to abolish the agency, though a recent federal court ruling temporarily blocked his executive order aimed at doing just that. Judge Myong J. Joun of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction ordering the reinstatement of thousands of department employees fired as part of the Administration’s downsizing campaign. In testimony before Congress, Education Secretary McMahon acknowledged that as many as three-fourths of the roughly 2,000 staff members who had been fired at the agency had been dismissed under restructuring efforts led by Elon Musk, who formerly led the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The NBES firings come amid mounting concern over the future of the Institute of Education Sciences itself. According to department employees and internal emails reviewed by [NPR](https://www.npr.org/2025/02/10/nx-s1-5292444/trump-musk-education-department-schools-students-research-cuts), many IES contracts were canceled within the first two months of Trump’s second term. These include long-term studies on math interventions, data collection on homeschooling, and surveys related to private education and career training. One canceled program had already been deployed in classrooms across multiple states. Founded under President George W. Bush as part of the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, the IES and its advisory board were created to bring scientific rigor to the education field. The NBES in particular was tasked with ensuring that federal education research is objective, equitable, and informed by practitioners and scientists alike. Harper [warned](https://time.com/7290996/trump-fired-education-experts/) of the long-term implications of terminating members of the board without replacements: “Consequently, students with disabilities will be even more underserved. Inequities between rich and poor, as well as white and racially diverse learners, will widen. Congress and educational leaders will have even less access to trustworthy, high-quality research on what works.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7291039/trump-administration-fires-education-research-board/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7291039/trump-administration-fires-education-research-board/"},"headline":"Trump Administration Fires 13 Members of Key Education Research Board, Citing ‘Partisan Influence’","datePublished":"2025-06-04T13:18:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-11T00:44:19.119Z","description":"The Administration cleared out the National Board for Education Sciences.","url":"https://time.com/7291039/trump-administration-fires-education-research-board/","keywords":["Education","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6b359b54a788aaf/6998c72107a30da1c577d0d3/GettyImages-2206133236.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nik Popli","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/nik-popli/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc6b359b54a788aaf/6998c72107a30da1c577d0d3/GettyImages-2206133236.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump Signs Executive Order To Begin Dismantling Education Department","caption":"Trump Signs Executive Order To Begin Dismantling Education Department","creditText":"Chen Mengtong—China News Service/VCG via 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/7291039/trump-administration-fires-education-research-board/","name":"Trump Administration Fires 13 Members of Key Education Research Board, Citing ‘Partisan Influence’"}}]}] ```