Donald Trump’s reckless agenda shutting down the Department of Education is already hitting our public schools and is set to delay grants for student aid and pause new programs in lower-income and rural communities. With help from billionaire Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Trump is pushing another unpopular pillar of his Project 2025 blueprint — and 50 million public school students will suffer. 

Here’s a look at how Trump’s order to abolish the Department of Education hurts low-income and rural students: 

NPR: “Education Dept. cuts could hurt low-income schools.” … 

“[T]oday, nearly all the statisticians and data experts who help get [certain federal education grants] to schools could be out of a job.

“The action essentially tells U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to take all necessary steps toward eliminating the department to the maximum extent possible … The National Center for Education Statistics, the agency that will have all but three staff workers eliminated, works on ‘formula grants.’ States and districts primarily decide what to do with these funds. For example, Title I and rural school grants could be used to pay for school staff salaries, transportation costs, technology and extra tutoring.”

USA Today: “Already, college officials say they have a backlog of logistical questions building up now that fired federal workers have stopped returning their emails.

“Brenda Hicks, the financial aid director at Southwestern College, a private school in Kansas, said an employee at FSA who was helping greenlight a new nursing program at her institution was let go last Tuesday. The program was started, Hicks said, so that young people in her rural community wouldn’t have to drive an hour out of town to become nurses. …

“The day after the Education Department announced staffing cuts last week, students nationwide briefly couldn’t apply for financial aid. …

“More than 320 employees in the Federal Student Aid office received termination notices last Tuesday, according to a preliminary tally from a union representing federal workers.”

NPR: “[T]he federal government plays an outsize role in helping high-needs schools get the money they need to stay afloat.

“Congress established Title I to provide money to K-12 schools in low-income communities. In the current fiscal year, the Department of Education set aside more than $18.38 billion for Title I. Nearly 90% of U.S. school districts benefit from the program, which has historically enjoyed bipartisan support among lawmakers.

“The Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP) awards money to low-income and rural school districts. More than a quarter of the country’s public schools are in rural areas. And while REAP is a fraction of the size of Title I — $215 million for the current year – Amy Price Azano of Virginia Tech’s Center for Rural Education says those dollars stretch much further in rural communities. …

“These federal grants can pay for things like school staff salaries, supplies, technology, tutoring programs and a range of basic services that low-income schools may not otherwise be able to afford.

“Rural education expert Amy Price Azano says, while rural schools are used to having fewer resources, the loss of REAP funds will strain them even more.”

NOTUS: “All income-driven repayment plans, the umbrella under which ICR plans fall, use the same application that was closed after the February court order, as the administration says it is revising it. The American Federation of Teachers sued the administration Wednesday morning for removing the application.

“The lack of clarity – from both the court decision and the Department of Education’s limited communication with respect to the issue – has sowed fear and outrage that the programs might be eliminated. Without income-driven repayment plans, borrowers worry that their monthly payments would balloon to what they would be on the standard plan – for some borrowers, the difference could be hundreds of dollars.”

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