Critics of Education Department changes see difficult path to restore agency after program closures

Another office at the Department of Education is on the chopping block after a year of efforts to dismantle the federal agency, pushing the hope of restoration for certain programs further out of reach for opponents.  

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA), used to support English language learners, is the latest of dozens of programs that have been broken up or moved by the Education Department to fulfill President Trump’s campaign promise to shut down the agency.  

While opponents have not lost hope the department can be rebuilt, the task becomes more difficult by the day with programs shuttered, thousands of employees fired and some initiatives transferring to completely different federal agencies. 

“I do think we can and will rebuild, but the how-long or how, I think that’s something that a lot of people are trying to think about and figure out right now,” said Rachel Gittleman, president of AFGE Local 252, the union representing employees at the department. “I wouldn’t be in the job that I’m in if I didn’t believe that rebuilding was a possibility.”  

Education Week first reported that the Education Department sent a letter to Congress back in February informing lawmakers of the intention to shut down OELA. 

The office has managed almost $1 billion in Title III funds to support the 5 million English language learners in U.S. schools, helping schools and educators cover the costs of services and teacher preparation for these students.  

“The Department of Education is focused on returning education to the states while preserving critical funding and reducing unnecessary bureaucracy that can slow support to students and families. English Learners should never be treated as a siloed program, set aside as an afterthought,” Kirsten Baesler, assistant secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, said in a statement to The Hill.  

“Aligning this work across teams within the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education reduces administrative burden and empowers states to design integrated supports that reflect the needs of their English Learner students and families,” she added. 

While the official notice was put into place in February, work at OELA and other offices has been diminished for a year after the Education Department slashed its workforce from 4,000 to 2,000 employees last year.  

The Office of Civil Rights lost a number of staffers, even hiring some back due to the backlog in cases. Parents of students with disabilities have expressed concern about civil rights cases closing too soon and difficulties of knowing who to talk to after the reduction in force occurred.  

“Many students and families across the country will likely suffer many setbacks. They will be placed in sink or swim situations with no one there to help enforce the law from the federal government. No one’s there to help provide guidance to those schools that may be intentionally or unintentionally denied access to equal educational opportunities for English learners. It is a tremendous and catastrophic loss,” said David Hinojosa, co-director of litigation for National Center for Youth Law.  

But the cuts and consolidations of programs are not limited to inside the Education Department, but some are moving to other federal agencies.  

The Education Department has announced numerous interagency agreements, including major changes such as moving the federal student loan portfolio to the Treasury Department. Other agencies receiving programs from the department include the State Department, Department of Health and Human Services, Interior Department and the Labor Department.  

Despite court challenges, the administration is able to go full force with its plan until a decision is reached by a judge.  

“As it’s getting broken, it will be harder to rebuild. That’s why it’s all the more important to stop the harm, each stage of it, as soon as possible and start the rebuilding as soon as possible” said Rachel Homer, director of Democracy 2025 and senior attorney at Democracy Forward, which is involved in the lawsuit against the Education Department’s efforts to dismantle itself.  

“We are really seeing the impact on states, on state education agencies, on schools, on teachers, on professional staff, on students and on their parents around the country, and … it’s going to be harder to put back together again now that it’s broken. That’s not to say that repair is impossible. It is always possible to alter the harm and slowly rebuild. It just gets harder and harder over time,” she added. 

Even a win in court won’t automatically mean the Education Department has to undo all the changes it has made in the past year.  

“A court could look at what’s happening and order not only a stop, but that the department provides those services that it’s required to provide by law, and what that translates to in terms of exact details and staffing is all TBD [to be determined],” Homer said.  

The bright spot for opponents is all the moves to shutter programs at the department have been done at the executive level, meaning the changes can be undone by the next president if he or she chooses to do so.  

In order to close the federal agency completely, or even to solidify changes that have been made, the Trump administration would have to go through Congress.  

“Far and away, the most effective way and the most appropriate way to do this is by working with Congress to do it through legislation that’s the best path forward,” said Rick Hess, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. 

“But certainly short of that, the administration has every incentive, they should be working very hard to not only make sure that these new arrangements work, but that it’s obvious to observers that they’re working because that will make it more difficult for the next administration, if it wished to reverse the changes,” he added.

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