On October 10, the Trump Administration began to implement a government wide reduction in workforce, impacting more than 4,000 employees across multiple agencies. As The Alliance for Early Success summarized: The U.S. Department of Education was hit particularly hard, with numerous offices decimated, including the office that administers special education and the office that administers funding for afterschool programs.

Disability advocates are warning that sweeping staff reductions inside the U.S. Department of Education have effectively dismantled the federal offices responsible for protecting the rights of students with disabilities. The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) has lost most of its personnel, leaving only a small team to oversee the nation’s special education and rehabilitation systems.

Said Katy Neas, CEO of The Arc of the United States: “These offices exist because, not so long ago, millions of children with disabilities were shut out of school. They represent our nation’s promise that every child deserves an education and a future. With these offices gutted, families will have nowhere to turn when schools fail to meet their obligations under federal law.” Earlier mandates that gutted the Office of Civil Rights, combined with these new layoffs, may make it harder for families with children with special needs to get the services they need.

The federal government remains shut down. It is unclear when and how negotiations will begin to find a solution to the current stalemate.

Why This Matters Now
With federal staffing gutted, especially within the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), an office that sits under and is part of OSERS, critical safeguards that protect students with disabilities are at risk of failing when they’re needed most. OSEP plays a critical role in ensuring that states uphold the rights of students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

What the Office Does
OSEP is more than a funding source; it’s the federal watchdog ensuring students with disabilities receive a “free and appropriate public education.” It provides technical assistance to states, monitors compliance, investigates systemic issues, and supports families through the Parent Training and Information Centers (PTIs).

What the Layoffs Could Mean for States
Fewer federal staff could mean:

• Delays in IDEA grant distribution and oversight
• Weakened monitoring and enforcement of student rights and compliance investigations
• Reduced capacity for technical assistance and guidance to states and local agencies
• Greater strain on state agencies, especially smaller ones like Delaware’s, which rely heavily on OSEP’s support

Why It Matters for Delaware
Students with special needs make up more than 19 percent of the school age population in Delaware or about 27,000 young people across the state. Delaware depends on OSEP for funding, guidance, and accountability. Without strong federal oversight, families may face longer waits for dispute resolution, and students could lose access to consistent, high-quality supports.

What Comes Next
We advise the continued monitoring of updates from the U.S. Department of Education and partners like the Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI), the Parent Information Center of Delaware (PIC), the Delaware Department of Education’s Office of Exceptional Children Resources (OECR), the Governor’s Advisory Council for Exceptional Citizens (GACEC), and Delaware Developmental Disabilities Council (DDC) for emerging details on how federal shifts translate to real impacts here in Delaware.

Sources

Urban Institute. February 19, 2025. How Dismantling the Education Department Could Affect Disabled Students across the US.

Delaware Department of Education. May 21, 2024. Accountability and Funding.

Education Writers Association. September 23, 2025. Navigating Special Education Funding Amid Federal Changes.

K12 Dive. October 12, 2025. RIFs rip through federal Office of Special Education Programs.

Learning Disabilities Association of America. (n.d.). The Potential Impact the Closure of the Department of Education would have on Children with Disabilities.

The U.S. Department of Education. August 27, 2025. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS).

For more information on the federal changes to public education, please see:

Education Counsel

‘Educational Exile’: How Trump’s Layoffs Threaten Students With Disabilities, EdWeek

Facts in the Flood: Education First’s analysis of federal education policy under the Trump Administration, Education First

As of July 28, 2025

The recently enacted federal reconciliation package, HR 1 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, was signed into law on July 4. It comes alongside a series of actions by the Trump Administration, including executive orders, agency rule changes, and non-regulatory guidance limiting eligibility for key programs. Together, these measures undercut support for children, families, and educators across the country, with minor advancements in workforce funding and tax policy for families with young children. For Delaware, this means losses in funding for schools, child care, food assistance, health coverage, and many more programs. These decisions are coupled with a recent Supreme Court decision to allow for the firing of 1,378 U.S. Department of Education staff, or about a third of the agency—and efforts are underway to move existing functions, like Career and Technical Education into other agencies.

Together, these measures signal a sea change in the relationship between the federal government and our schools. As I shared in April, while the U.S. Department of Education was officially established about 46 years ago (1979), there were growing efforts in the decades prior to increase educational access to students of color, low-income students, and those with disabilities. This collection of shifts in the last six months will undercut many of these supports for children and families and shift much of the cost for these supports back to states for years to come.  

Yes, there were modest advancements in workforce funding and tax policy for families with young children, but for Delaware, the reductions in funding and in the number of people to ensure the funds are spent appropriately, this largely means reductions in funding and services for schools and colleges, child care, food assistance, and health coverage. 

Importantly, HR 1, which by itself surpasses 900 pages, is separate from the still-pending Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 appropriations process, as well as the Administration’s recent action to withhold FY 2025 funding that supports afterschool programs, summer learning, and a range of K-12 and adult education programs. Future appropriations and withholding existing federal funds further compound the uncertainty for Delaware, especially because many provisions, including those in HR 1, have staggered or unclear effective dates, adding to the complexity for state leaders and communities.

This is a lot to take in, but we’ve tried to organize this so that Delawareans can better understand the implications of these decisions by category and begin to identify a path forward. 

K–12 Education Funds on Hold

$26.6 million in federal education funds is being withheld from Delaware students and families

Update as of July 28, 2025: Shortly after this post was published, the Trump Administration reversed course and released the $6.8 billion in withheld federal education funds, including $26.6 million for Delaware. While this is a welcome shift, it does not reverse other cuts and programmatic changes outlined below. Read more from Education Week. 

On July 1, the Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) was expecting to receive federal grant funds, which had previously been appropriated by Congress and signed into law by the president, to deliver a range of educational services and to support state implementation. As is true with many federal education programs, these funds are used to directly support vulnerable student groups, such as multilingual learners, and to support programs that serve youth outside of schools and their families.

Instead, the U.S. Department of Education notified states late in the day on June 30, that it was impounding funds from five key programs. The total amount of federal funds held back nationally across these programs is $6.2 billion, or an even greater sum of $6.8 billion when you include the funds intended for adult learners under a different grant. The federal programs affected are:

• Teacher training & professional development (authorized under Title II, Part A of ESEA, 20 U.S.C. § 6611 et seq.)
• English Learner support (authorized under Title III, Part A of ESEA, 20 U.S.C. § 6811 et seq.)
• Student Support and Academic Enrichment (authorized under Title IV, Part A of ESEA, 20 U.S.C. § 7111 et seq.)
• 21st Century Community Learning Centers (authorized under Title IV, Part B of ESEA, 20 U.S.C. § 7171 et seq.)
• Adult Education State Grants (authorized under Title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, 29 U.S.C. § 3271 et seq.)
• Migrant Education (authorized under Title I, Part C of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 6391 et seq.

Because the decision to withhold these dollars came at such a late date, Delaware lead education agencies had already budgeted these funds for FY2026, leaving uncertainty as the federal Department of Education delays dispersing them.

Early Childhood Programs like Head Start under Threat While Tax Credits Expanded

While HR 1 doesn’t directly cut Head Start, it caps domestic spending and shrinks the overall budget for programs like it.

Combined with ongoing efforts from the Trump Administration, including delayed payments and regional office closures, portions of the bill deprioritize early childhood education. 

At the same time, the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) has been expanded, boosting direct tax relief for families paying for child care, particularly those earning under $150,000. For Delaware families, this means a $900 increase in average annual benefits.

The legislation enhances other tax credits as well, including:

• The Employer-Provided Child Care Credit (Section 45F), which makes it easier for Delaware businesses—especially small and mid-sized employers—to support employees through on-site care, partnerships with providers, or subsidy programs.
• The Dependent Care Assistance Plan (DCAP), which is a flexible spending account that allows families to set aside pre-tax income to pay for child care expenses.

The changes to these tax credits (CDCTC, 45F, and DCAP) have received overwhelming bipartisan support. 

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Underfunded

HR 1 worsens existing underfunding of IDEA, leaving a $38.7 billion gap nationally and further straining schools’ ability to serve students with disabilities.

The reconciliation bill also cuts Medicaid, which is a critical support for many disabled students. Medicaid helps fund essential services for students with disabilities, including speech therapy and behavioral and mental health counseling, by reimbursing schools for the costs tied to services documented in a student’s individualized education plan (IEP).   

It also expands school voucher programs through the Education Choice for Children Act (ECCA), which diverts funds from public schools and, when utilized by students with disabilities, results in a loss of the full protection of IDEA.

The legislation further creates a new $1,700 tax credit for “qualified elementary and secondary education scholarships,” which can be used for expenses tied to public, private, or religious schooling. This is concerning in that it blurs the constitutional lines between church and state and further shifts public dollars away from serving the 90 percent of students in Delaware’s public schools.

SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) Cuts to Impact 64,000 Families in Delaware

HR 1 freezes future SNAP benefit increases by preventing updates to the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP), which sets benefit levels. This would lock benefits at already outdated levels.

The bill also expands work requirements to include adults up to age 64 (up from age 60) and adds parents of children under 14, while removing exemptions for veterans, unhoused people, and former foster youth. It further restricts states’ ability to waive work requirements (only allowed if local unemployment exceeds 10 percent). Rather than supporting employment, this change has been shown to take away health coverage from workers in states like Arkansas and Georgia.

The legislation further cuts access for legally present immigrants and bars all non–lawful permanent residents from SNAP—including refugees and asylees. This decision will directly impact citizen children in mixed-status families. Similar announcements for programs like Head Start and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) have left these children and their families in an impossible situation.

Finally, HR 1 imposes a new state funding match, requiring states for the first time to contribute toward SNAP benefits—starting in FY 2028. The federal cost-share would drop from 100 percent to 75 percent, with each state’s required match tied to its SNAP payment “error rate,” tabulated whenever a state issues more or less in SNAP benefits than a household is eligible to receive.

Errors often result from outdated or incorrect income information, delays in processing household changes (like jobs or living arrangements), or mistakes made by caseworkers during eligibility reviews. They do not typically reflect fraud. Delaware’s current error rate of 12.37 percent (FY 2024) places it in the highest penalty bracket, meaning the state will be responsible for $15 million of total SNAP costs.

Note: Delaware is projected to contribute $15 million annually toward SNAP benefits starting in FY2028 due to changes in the state match. This does not capture total family benefit losses, which will vary based on future program participation and economic conditions.

Medicaid Cuts could impact 90,000 Delawareans

Medicaid plays a major role in schools across the U.S., providing $7.5 billion annually for health services such as speech therapy, physical therapy, dental and vision care, and support for students with disabilities.

HR 1 introduces work requirements and spending caps, similar to those discussed in the previous section related to SNAP, that could result in millions losing coverage nationwide, with profound impacts on the employees and owners of small businesses, women, and young children, among other groups.

The bill also eliminates the enhanced federal match rate for states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This shift would dramatically increase the state’s share of the costs, potentially requiring Delaware to shoulder an additional $208 million annually. 

Delaware could face hard choices—either fill in the resulting federal shortfalls or allow lapses in health coverage. These lapses would affect those covered by Medicaid, which in Delaware is one in four people, or three in eight children.  

Note: This estimate reflects projected losses under a per capita cap and elimination of the ACA expansion match rate. It does not include potential impacts from new Medicaid work requirements or other provisions where state-level estimates are still unclear.

Categorical Eligibility Impacted by Medicaid and SNAP Cuts

Programs like Medicaid and SNAP don’t just provide direct benefits, they also serve as eligibility markers for other supports. In some schools, students enrolled in these programs are automatically eligible for services like free or reduced-price meals, summer electronic benefit transfer (EBT), and other supplemental education programs, depending on local policy.

Afterschool Programs at Risk

Update as of July 28, 2025: The Trump Administration has released the FY 2025 21st CCLC funds. This decision restores funding to approximately 23 Delaware programs and 7,000 students. However, the delay created significant short-term uncertainty and planning challenges, and future funding decisions through the FY 2026 process remain unclear. Read more here. 

Afterschool and summer learning faces several threats due to the withholding of FY 2025 21^st Century Community Learning Center (21^st CCLC) funds and potential structural changes in the FY 2026 budget.

Although the 21^st CCLC funds were approved by Congress and signed into law, the federal government has delayed distribution, citing a “program review.” This impacts up to 23 Delaware programs and about 7,000 students, along with 10,000 sites and 1.4 million students nationally.

Meanwhile, decisions made during the FY2026 appropriations process could result in the funding of 21st CCLC as-is, or it could be replaced by a new block grant. 

Workforce Pell

The newly authorized Workforce Pell Grant Program expands Pell Grant eligibility to students enrolled in shorter-term, high-quality workforce training programs—typically 150–600 clock hours over eight to 15 weeks.

These programs must be offered by accredited institutions and aligned to in-demand industry sectors defined by Perkins V or Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).

Over One Billion in Cuts to Mental Health and Civil Rights

Mental health cuts. Over $1 billion in federal cuts to school-based mental health programs are threatening student access to counselors, social workers, and crisis supports. This is concerning given known, widespread, and pervasive youth mental health challenges, and is particularly frightening for schools already struggling to meet the needs of students.

Civil rights complaints. The U.S. Department of Education has quietly implemented new internal protocols that have led to the mass dismissal of civil rights complaints, particularly those written off because they have been filed by the same individual. These concerning changes reduce oversight of discrimination in schools and make it harder for students to seek justice for violations.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). Proposed federal rule changes could exclude organizations, including those that serve immigrants or provide gender-affirming care, from PSLF eligibility. Taking away this promised loan relief will harm educators, social workers, and other public service professionals. Combined with new repayment enforcement and the rollback of aid programs like SAVE, many face higher costs.

What’s Next for Delaware?

Delaware has previously taken steps to fight back against select cuts. Specifically:

• Delaware joined a coalition of states suing the Trump Administration over its decision to impound FY2025 federal grant payments, including education and safety net funding. It successfully blocked attempts to hold back these dollars.
• Delaware was also part of a lawsuit challenging the “unauthorized disclosure of Americans’ private information and sensitive data.” This suit was successful in preventing further unauthorized access to federal financial systems.

Further lawsuits and the reorganization of funds at the state level are possible. However, it is likely that these cuts and changes will continue to have an impact on Delawareans, especially the most vulnerable. They will be a major consideration during the development of the FY2027 state budget, which will be underway soon, as state leaders weigh whether to fill these federal funding gaps directly or take other approaches to mitigate the harm.

In Conclusion

This blog post is a summary of insights compiled by policy organizations, news outlets, and government sources (linked throughout). Yet, it does not capture the full range of recent federal actions impacting children, families, and educators. Numerous Supreme Court decisions and administrative changes by and to U.S. Department of Education continue to unfold, alongside various Executive Orders.  

As this administration advances sweeping policy shifts, the cumulative impact on public education and family supports remains both urgent and evolving. Going forward, the onus will be increasingly on our collective shoulders as a state to be equally bold in our response to the needs of Delaware’s children and the health of our communities. We welcome working alongside you to keep the First State moving forward. 

With the signing of President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) last week to push for the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE), the question folks in Delaware are asking is what are the implications for our state and the country?

As an organization, Rodel works on building broad coalitions to support an excellent and equitable public education system that supports all Delawareans to achieve success in school and life. We approach the work with a clear point of view, but we are also committed to listening to those who don’t see things the same way.

This post attempts to:
1) Explain the roles of the executive and legislative branches, what the EO says and summarize the Administration’s argument for eliminating USDOE
2) Provide some background on why the USDOE was created
3) Discuss whether this EO (and elimination of USDOE) is likely to enhance efficiency and improve outcomes
4) Summarize what it could mean for Delaware

Basics. To level set, constitutionally, there are certain things that the president can do without congressional approval and certain things his office and associated agencies cannot. While the president and his agencies can enforce laws, they can’t make them without congressional approval. The Executive Order signed last week doesn’t have the legal authority to cut funding or eliminate the agency without congressional approval.

Further, while the federal government contributes about 10 cents on the dollar to public education nationally (in Delaware it’s about 12 cents), the states and localities fund and control most of the major decisions, including things like curriculum, standards, and graduation requirements. Outcomes and achievement levels—for better or worse—are therefore also owned by state and local entities.

Current State. Linda McMahon has been appointed and confirmed as the new U.S. Secretary of Education. There have been many Executive Orders signed (see a full list here) that could impact how schools teach civics to how they train staff. On March 11 about half of USDOE’s 4,000 employees were put on administrative leave, and while this decision is being contested, half the staff are no longer there. The Office of Civil Rights, which is meant to protect students, and the Institute for Education Sciences (IES), the independent evaluation and research arm of USDOE, took the biggest hits.

What’s the argument for eliminating USDOE? In the Executive Order, the cited reasons were that USDOE is a “failed experiment.” That, while it was created in 1979 to improve public education, that it has not done so and has cost taxpayers billions of dollars in the process. In short, the rationale is that the USDOE is an unaccountable bureaucracy that is stifling local control, so shutting it down will make government more efficient and improve student performance.

Why was USDOE created? A long time ago, a pastor in Wilmington taught me that before I take down a fence, I should try to understand why it was put up in the first place. While some folks may remember the Bush (No Child Left Behind) and Obama (Race to the Top) eras, the origins of the need for a more significant federal role in public education began well before then, and even before President Carter legally established the office in 1979. In the 1940s, after the war, the feds created the GI Bill (which benefitted my dad and brother but was elusive to black soldiers in Jim Crow America) to help many young people returning from the war continue their education. In the ‘50s, after Sputnik, the federal government invested in increasing science education to keep up with the Russians. In the 1960s and ‘70s, as students of color, those with disabilities, and those who don’t speak English as a first language, finally got access to public education, the federal government created funding streams, like Title 1 (1965) and Pell Grants (1972), and protections, like the Office of Civil Rights (1957) to ensure those rights were lived out.

In short, the origins of USDOE were about creating a more competitive, well-educated populace, based on the belief that we needed to create a system that was inclusive of all Americans so that, as a nation, we could thrive in a global economy.

Will this effort to dismantle USDOE generate more efficiencies? It depends on your definition. If “efficient” means spending less time and funding for the same or better quality outcomes, I’m skeptical. Were there redundancies in USDOE? Probably. But cutting over a thousand people means the loss of deep institutional knowledge that will be hard to rebuild, if ever.

The Trump Administration has stated that it will move important functions of the department to other agencies. For example, student loans and grants might be moved to the Small Business Administration, workforce development grants might be moved to the Department of Labor, and student funding line items might be moved to Health and Human Services.

Maybe this could work someday. But to do so those agencies would have to staff up and build new capacities and systems. And rather than engaging with one principal office, educators, parents, and students, will now need to navigate multiple, which have differing procedures and processes to administer programs and financial resources. In short, it’s not clear that there will be a net savings, nor that the quality of outcomes and service will be maintained or improved.

Will removing USDOE improve outcomes? The initial question is, how will we know? Much of the research and evaluation capacity of USDOE was eliminated in the March 11 reduction in force. This includes the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), our one common national benchmark for literacy and numeracy. Even more conservative thinkers, like Checker Finn of the Fordham and Hoover Foundations underscores the need for USDOE to capture basic information across the country and to provide some level of analysis about lessons learned.  With no common hub for information, we can’t build a strategy of doing more of what works.

If this basic data function is eliminated, each of the fifty states will be on their own. Some will likely do well, but we won’t be able to amplify what they are doing, or worse, we may not know what they are doing, and some states will fall further behind, and as a nation, we will not have a means to track that decline or help them catch up.

What will this mean for Delaware? As a reminder, nine out of 10 children living in Delaware attend our public schools, so this impacts every corner of our state. Of those 140,000 public school students, about 61percent are people of color, 28 percent are low-income, about 12 percent are multilingual learners, and about 18 percent have an identified disability. And while our local and state tax dollars cover close to 90 percent of the cost, our children, students, and educators still benefit from over $300 million dollars in federal funds annually.

This is an evolving landscape because many of these Executive Orders are being contested in court and the funding implications may not come until next year. But as the dust settles, the impact could be profound. For example, federal cuts to Medicaid or access to food could also significantly impact Delaware’s budget picture and services available to students and families.

So, for Delawareans trying to get a handle on what the potential implications of all the Executive Orders proposed in the last 60 days (see here for a full list with associated summaries) will mean, here are three major issues to track.

• Information – With the recent cuts, critical information, like whether our kids can read and write could be lost. With no common measuring stick like NAEP, parents and employers won’t know what’s working from state to state. Likewise, it’s unclear whether any of the data we capture nationally, like graduation data or research on what works, will continue.
• Civil Rights – The Office of Civil Rights has already largely been decimated. Its job was to protect our most vulnerable children. When a complaint arises that students of color are being suspended at rates dramatically higher than their peers (which has happened in Delaware), who will parents turn to, the district that they are complaining about? Related, multilingual learners are our fastest growing student population (12 percent of Delaware’s public school students) and while they are a huge asset, speaking over 90 languages, with increased immigration enforcement, many are nervous and simply not attending school. As context, here is a statement from the Latin American Community Center in Wilmington.
• Student supports – The impact of federal funding cuts is still unclear. Given that Congress needs to vote on the allocation of federal funds and that the Administration says it will continue these allocations, these may not be at risk in the near term, but here are some of the federal funds Delaware currently receives annually
• $50 million for the 27,000 students with disabilities
• $59 million for the 100,000 children that attend schools with high percentages of low-income children
• $90 million for Pell Grants to help 17,000 Delawareans attend college

See here (pp. 13-14) for a full list of funding coming to Delaware. If these funds go away, will we replace those funds with state dollars, which may require a raise in taxes, or will we just let those tens of thousands of students not get the support they need? As Congress works through the budget process, we should be paying attention to these issues and several more that could have an impact on our state.

What’s next? It’s hard to predict with certainty, but in regard to these Executive Orders, the lawsuits challenging them will continue to play out, and members of congress will begin to debate the future of USDOE and its associated line items. Further, there will likely be additional executive or legislative actions filed to encourage “universal school choice,” which allows public-sector dollars to fund private schools through “Education Savings Accounts” or vouchers.

We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, but until then, we’ll keep moving forward to support all our children to contribute and thrive. Evidence of Delawarean’s resolve to keep moving forward could be seen in last Monday’s release of the Vision Coalition’s Student Equity and Excellence 2035 (SEE35), a 10-year vision by and for Delawareans for what public education can and should be in the next decade. We look forward to working with all of you here in Delaware and in D.C. to help us deliver on the promise of this plan.

In the last week, there have been several big stories on education. We saw federal funds frozen, then unfrozen; we saw the discouraging data from the Nation’s report card, and then the following day, some more news from D.C. about expanding school choice and proposed changes to what is taught in our schools. We’ve seen renewed focus on immigration enforcement and a series of Executive Orders related to transgender students. There is also the specter of President Trump eliminating the U.S. Department of Education entirely.

There’s a lot to process, so let’s start with the one we’re hearing the most about from schools and parents: immigration. Some school leaders have shared that daily enrollment is down as parents are afraid, and per the link, above, school administrators are generally not sure how best to respond. This is an area where there are some good resources from organizations like the ACLU but districts and charter schools could benefit from some statewide guidance from the state. My sense is that we will likely see that later in the week.

Second, the performance of Delaware’s public schools on NAEP. As has been reported here, and here, they are not good. Our performance went up modestly in math at the fourth-grade level, down at the eighth-grade level, and was largely flat in English. As Governor Matt Meyer and Secretary of Education Cindy Marten shared, this is a “turning point. We have a literacy emergency, and it is time for shared accountability and unwavering support for every child.” We need to act, and I’m excited that Sec. Marten has a great track record  of doing just that.

Related, as Delawareans look to modernize our school funding system we should not only build in the supports our children and educators need, but create clear strategies to address student achievement. This process is moving forward through the funding commission and the Meyer Administration has this as a top issue to tackle this spring. Again, Sec. Marten has experience connecting funding to helping students improve; here’s a report by Stanford University that highlights how San Diego “beat the odds.”

As to the recent flurry of federal Executive Orders, it’s unclear how they will impact our state or whether they are actually consistent with the Constitution. For example, there are mentions of repurposing federal funds and infusing new curricula into local schools. Changing how federal funds are spent will require Congress to agree, leaving a small amount in the discretion of the Trump Administration. Further, since the Constitution is silent on the role of the federal government, the curricula, what’s taught in our schools, is a decision typically made at the state and local levels, so it’s unclear what the impact of those EOs will be.

To summarize:

• The concerns about immigration enforcement need more clarification from the state.
• Our collective response to our overall performance on national assessments require focused strategy and investment.
• And, it’s not yet clear whether or how much the other federal EOs signed last week will change what actually happens in schools, so practitioners and policymakers should monitor those issues closely.

For our part, Rodel remains steadfast in our Equity Commitment, and we will continue:

• Building and supporting affinity spaces for educators of color to help recruit and retain a workforce that reflects the children they serve.
• Creating career pathways that are open to all, and include additional supports and training for our educators of color to not only better reflect our student population, but, as the research confirms, boost the academic performance of all students.
• Prioritizing policies that address equity, including scholarships and financial incentives, child care funding, and other supports that prioritize low-income families and many families of color.

We are committed to working with public and private partners to continue these initiatives regardless of what happens.

We support teaching culturally relevant, affirming, and sustaining content about the history of our country, including embedding the histories of marginalized and oppressed communities into curriculum materials and learning experiences.  Afterall, we can’t teach about the amendments to our Constitution, unless we understand why they were needed.

We support policies that protect students and educators—and those that make schools safe, welcoming, protected places to learn that create belonging regardless of race or gender.

We support public schools, and do not support vouchers. Close to nine out of 10 children in Delaware attend public schools. They are and will become our CEOs, our doctors and nurses, our mechanics, and IT professionals. Our public schools are the foundation of our communities. Public funds belong in public schools. We support a strong, equitable, accessible, and responsible public school system for all students. School vouchers provide little evidence of contributing to those ends. In fact, they have tended to widen disparities within communities and present major concerns for fairness, accessibility, costs, student achievement, and accountability.

For resources on these issues from state and national partners, please visit Affirming Our Commitment to Equity.