Dan Proft spoke with Julie Hartman, chief spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education, about the Trump administration’s ongoing effort to scale back the federal agency and shift education authority to states, localities and parents. Hartman said the administration’s approach, led by Education Secretary Linda McMahon, is a response to what she described as decades of disappointing results despite roughly $3 trillion in federal education spending, citing figures showing only about three in ten students proficient in reading and math. She said a record 25 states, including Illinois, are now using Ed-Flex authority, which frees local school districts from certain federal paperwork requirements, and that the department has redirected funding away from diversity, equity and inclusion programs toward literacy instruction grounded in reading science.
Proft raised concerns some families with children who have Individualized Education Programs voiced earlier in the restructuring process, asking whether funding for students with disabilities was being cut. Hartman said the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act predates the Department of Education and that its protections remain fully intact, pointing to a fiscal year 2027 budget request that includes more than half a billion dollars in additional IDEA funding over the prior year, along with a $144 million disbursement to states that went out on July 1. She said Secretary McMahon has met directly with parents and educators to reaffirm the administration’s commitment to those protections.
The conversation also covered the education freedom tax credit created under the administration’s broader budget legislation, which Hartman described as the largest national expansion of school choice in U.S. history. She said 30 states, including some with Democratic governors such as Colorado, North Carolina, Kentucky and Kansas, have opted into the program, which allows families to direct funds toward private school tuition, tutoring or other academic support without reducing public school funding. Illinois has not opted in, a decision Proft attributed to Governor JB Pritzker’s ties to teachers unions.
On higher education, Proft pressed Hartman on federal funding still flowing to universities he characterized as pushing ideological coursework, citing Oregon State University’s diversity and power-and-oppression course requirements as an example. Hartman pointed to Secretary McMahon’s recent letter urging university leaders to recommit to free inquiry and open debate, as well as agreements the administration has reached with schools including Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown and Cornell addressing issues such as Title IX enforcement and DEI programming. She said the Florida university system has also formally responded to McMahon’s letter. Looking ahead, Hartman said the department’s long-term trajectory is toward becoming primarily a pass-through grant-making agency with a smaller administrative footprint, while continuing to send funding to states and maintaining legally mandated protections, including through new interagency partnerships with the Department of Labor on career and technical education and the Treasury Department on student loan policy.