Virginia’s sixth district congressman, Ben Cline, is cosponsoring a bill to terminate the Department of Education, even as President Donald Trump threatens to sign an executive order to dismantle it. WMRA’s Bridget Manley reports.
Cline is one of 31 House Republicans who have signed on to cosponsor bill 899, which consists of one edict: to terminate the Department of Education by December 31, 2026. Meanwhile, as NPR reported, at least 60 probationary employees at the DOE received termination notices last week.
The DOE, established in 1979 by Congress and President Jimmy Carter, has long been targeted by Republicans, dating back to Ronald Reagan’s campaign in 1980.
BEN CLINE: It [the department] has 4,000 employees, many of whom have never been to Harrisonburg, for example, and don’t know the educational priorities of the people of Harrisonburg.
Cline echoed the sentiment of many Republicans that the department is burdened by bureaucracy and should be streamlined.
CLINE: The money that is sent to Harrisonburg should still be sent to Harrisonburg, but should be block-granted and sent to the localities, and enabling the school board in Harrisonburg and the school board in Rockingham County to administer those funds in the way that they see fit.
Funding for education comes from various sources, including federal, state, and local governments. The Department of Education distributes multiple streams of funding, such as Title I funds, which support students from low-income families and assist school systems with instructional materials, technology, staffing, and other resources.
The department also offers funding through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which allocates resources for special education services. States must provide specially designed instruction to all students with disabilities.
The Rockingham County school system’s 2024-2025 operating fund includes $2.2 million in Title I funding, which is allocated for reading specialists, behavioral support staff, and additional teaching resources. They also project an additional $2.8 million in IDEA funding for special education programs, which includes reading initiatives, special education teachers, and occupational and speech language therapists.
Cline supports Title I and IDEA Part B funding but wants the funds distributed through block grants.
CLINE: That funding can be directly delivered to the locality for administration, and there will be opportunities for oversight, for assistance. But that can be in the form of assistance from health department resources, both at the federal and local levels, but there won’t necessarily need to be a bureaucrat in the education department at the federal level to administer those funds.
The Associated Press reported last week that some federal officials expect the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to fire 5,200 probationary employees as part of the Trump administration’s workforce purge.
TIM KAINE: Without a Department of Education, who is going to enforce the protections in the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act, making sure that our students with disabilities are treated fairly? Without a Department of Education, who is going to make sure that schools receive Title I funding, schools with a high percentage of low-income students?
Virginia Senator Tim Kaine told reporters last week that eliminating the Department of Education would take the country back to a time before Brown vs. Board of Education, when states determined who received protections and who did not.
KAINE: What we found during that era is that some states did it right, and some states did it wrong. The federal government should not take a hands-off, blind-eye position on education and refuse to enforce basic fairness and equity in our schools around the country.
Cline said that while Congress stands ready to work with Trump, he believes the House bill is the most effective way to eliminate the department and ensure the most vulnerable children continue to receive funds. The bill has been forwarded to the House Education and Workforce Committee. If it receives approval, it will then move to the House for a vote.
