A Morehouse College student lines up before the school commencement on May 19, 2024, in Atlanta. The U.S. Department of Education had started to work with the U.S. Department of the Treasury on transferring its student loan portfolio, a new court filing shows.
A copy of Project 2025 is held during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. The Trump administration has added the author of the conservative policy document's chapter on education to the U.S. Department of Education's staff.
Phil Rosenfelt, center, an attorney with the office of general counsel at the U.S. Department of Education, is greeted by supporters after retrieving personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025, the last day of work for hundreds of agency employees. The Trump administration has had to bump back the day it planned to stop paying laid-off staff.
Members of the City Year program work at Isaac Newton Middle School for Math and Science in East Harlem during the MLK Day of Service on Jan. 20, 2025, in New York City. City Year places AmeriCorps volunteers in underserved schools, but cuts to the federal service agency have led City Year to scale back some of its AmeriCorps volunteer-powered programs.
Penny Schwinn, left, and Kimberly Richey speak prior to testifying before the U.S. Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee in Washington on June 5, 2025. Schwinn is President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as deputy secretary in the U.S. Department of Education. Richey is Trump's nominee to lead the department's office for civil rights.
Supporters hold signs and cheer Education Department employees as they leave after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington, Monday, March 24, 2025. A judge has ordered the reinstatement of terminated department employees, but they have yet to return to work.
A marquee outside Massapequa High School in Massapequa, N.Y., is backdropped by a Chiefs mascot mural on April 25, 2025. The U.S. Department of Education is backing the district's attempts to hold onto the mascot despite state rules forbidding such depictions of Native Americans.
Penny Schwinn, then the commissioner of education in Tennessee, is greeted by students at Fairmount Elementary in Bristol, Tenn. on June 14, 2021. Schwinn, President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as deputy secretary of education, will appear before senators on June 5 for her confirmation hearing.
Nine-year-old Alejandra Rodriguez of Key Largo, Fla., watches as college students protest in support of the Department of Education on March 20, 2025, outside the federal agency in Washington. A federal judge has ordered the department to reinstate all staff it has terminated since President Donald Trump's inauguration.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon appears before a House appropriations panel on May 21, 2025, to speak about her department's 2026 budget proposal. The budget would cut department spending by 15%.
High school student teachers read a book to a preschool class. Evidence-based literacy instruction will be one priority for the Trump administration as it awards competitive education grants. The priorities in those competitions will be school choice and "returning education to the states."
Students wait in line on the first day of school at the Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School in Philadelphia on Sept. 9, 2019. The Trump administration has increased funding for charter school grants by $60 million.
Guests listen as then-President Joe Biden speaks during an event to celebrate the passage of the "Bipartisan Safer Communities Act," a law meant to reduce gun violence, on the South Lawn of the White House on July 11, 2022, in Washington. The U.S. Department of Education on April 29 told grantees that had received money to train and hire more mental health professionals in schools that it wouldn't renew their grants.
President Donald Trump signs an executive order regarding education in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Washington, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon watch.
Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters is pictured on June 28, 2022, in Oklahoma City when he was a candidate for the position he now holds. Walters this week told districts he would halt federal funding beginning Friday, April 25, if they don't certify they're not using diversity, equity, and inclusion programming in schools.
