Trump moves closer to closing Education Department with $76.5B FY2027 budget
The administration is closing the U.S. Department of Education, and its latest budget proposal is a step in that direction. This month, President Donald Trump released his fiscal 2027 budget request proposing approximately $76.5 billion for the department, a 3% cut from one year ago.
Top-line funding appears only modestly lower because the proposal accounts for an expected shortfall in the federal Pell Grant program. Pell Grants, which provide aid to college students from low-income families, needed approximately $10.5 billion to meet current commitments.
Officials say the budget reflects the administration’s intent to refocus federal education policy on improving academic achievement while returning authority to states. The plan seeks to reduce staff, consolidate and eliminate dozens of programs described as duplicative or ineffective, and transfer certain responsibilities to agencies viewed as better equipped to manage them.
A central feature is the consolidation of 17 formula and competitive K–12 grant programs — including Comprehensive Literacy State Development and Innovative Approaches to Literacy — into a newly proposed Make Education Great Again (MEGA) grant.
The single state formula grant is framed as giving state and local officials more flexibility to meet student needs, while calling on educators to prioritize evidence-based instruction in reading and mathematics to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes.
The budget leaves proposed spending levels for Title I — federal grants to local education agencies serving students from low-income areas — unchanged, and outlines slight increases for special education programs, Impact Aid, and Indian Education.
Some policy advocates urge Congress to allow parents to use a child’s portion of Title I funding so that spending follows the student, and to modernize Impact Aid by creating parent-controlled education savings accounts for military families.
A Heritage Foundation report cited the complexity of Title I funding and argued that its current design has made it difficult to target resources, noting “growing evidence to suggest that Title I [in its current form] has been and remains ineffective at improving educational outcomes.” Survey data have also been cited in support of expanding school-choice options for military families.
As of 2025, a survey of about 3,000 military families found nearly three-fourths of respondents would support an education savings account program for military-connected students. With more than half of active-duty families living in states with no or limited school-choice options, advocates say such reforms could promote national security.
In a separate Military Times survey, 35% of respondents said dissatisfaction with their child’s education was a significant factor in their decision to leave military service. The proposal also eliminates several discretionary higher education programs, including TRIO, GEAR UP, and International and Foreign Language Education.
Past reviews have raised concerns about these initiatives. In December 2020, the Government Accountability Office reported that little is done to verify the accuracy of data TRIO grantees report to the Education Department regarding the number and percentage of students who received services and earned degrees, and that the department has never assessed the effectiveness of three of the seven TRIO programs that serve students.
Taken together, the measures underscore the administration’s effort to redirect federal education policy toward classroom outcomes while shifting more control to states and local communities.