Member-only story
Trump vs. Education
Drastic Cuts to Staffing or Eliminating the U.S. Department of Education Will Adversely Impact Emergency Management in the U.S. for Schools
Open Source intelligence yesterday (3/11/2025) has noted that the U.S. Department of Education is poised to slash nearly fifty percent of its workforce, with reductions in force as early as March 21, 2025. We will let others argue about the legalities of these types of cuts by the Executive Branch in Federal entities established by the Legislative Branch, but from an Emergency Management perspective, this action will most likely leave a huge gap in the federal support before disasters strike schools of any kind, level, or type. These cuts will most likely significantly impact how the recovery for all levels of educational institutions will be helped after large disasters, as well.
Non-Federal jurisdictions (these are the states, tribal nations, territories, counties, municipalities, etc. — where the responsibility for education already resides) struggle with agile threats at schools — both public and private. As an example — the active assailant threat — the response roles from schools themselves is highly inconsistent: from underfunded yet mandated armed guards in Texas, to 2018’s bucket of rocks solution in a rural Pennsylvania school district.
