WASHINGTON – As Democrats prepare to take control of Congress, they are planning an aggressive challenge to President Donald Trump’s signature education policies, beginning with his effort to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. Trump’s veto power, however, could limit their options largely to congressional investigations and restrictions attached to federal funding.
The White House has shown no indication that it intends to abandon its campaign to eliminate the department or roll back diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Democrats, meanwhile, are preparing to use their oversight authority and control of appropriations to scrutinize administration decisions affecting schools and colleges nationwide.
Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, the senior Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said he intends to “leave no rock unturned” as he assumes control of the panel’s investigative work, including its power to issue subpoenas and conduct hearings.
Scott said the committee is expected to examine the administration’s efforts to dismantle the Education Department, its management of federal student loans and its approach to civil rights enforcement. Under Trump, the department has emphasized investigations involving transgender students while reducing its focus on systemic racial discrimination in education.
One day after the midterm elections, Scott wrote to 10 federal agencies, directing them to preserve records that could later be requested as part of congressional investigations.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, urged her party to “hold the Trump administration accountable for dismantling the Department of Education and turning its back on students.”
Trump administration officials criticized the Democrats’ plans. Education Department spokesperson Savannah Newhouse accused them of trying to “prematurely sabotage” Education Secretary Linda McMahon, while White House spokesperson Liz Huston said Democrats had failed American students through “disastrous leadership” before Trump returned to office.
Investigations unlikely to halt Trump’s education agenda
Congressional investigations can expose how decisions were made and create political pressure, but they are unlikely to significantly slow the education policies that have angered Democrats over the past two years. Trump has also promised to veto Democratic legislation he considers damaging, leaving little expectation that Congress can enact major countermeasures.
Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee are therefore examining how the budgeting process could provide stronger safeguards. Some lawmakers are considering adding conditions to spending bills that would constrain the administration’s education plans.
“I think there will be an interest in using the power of the purse to establish guard rails and prevent these abusive practices,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, told The Associated Press.
Democrats failed last year to win broad provisions blocking further efforts to dismantle the Education Department. With control of both chambers, they are preparing to make another attempt. Van Hollen said the strategy could help “stop the bleeding,” even if it cannot immediately restore what has already been eliminated.
“It’s a little harder to try to rebuild an entity just through an appropriations bill,” he said. “But we can certainly try to prevent further damage and then seek to reverse the harm that’s been done.”
Van Hollen also said lawmakers may seek to tie federal funding to limits on Trump’s efforts to reshape higher education, including the administration’s repeated attempts to cut financial support for Harvard and other prominent universities. “That said,” he added, “we’re dealing with an administration that has demonstrated no respect for the law.”
Education advocates are calling for even tougher action. Some want spending bills to require the administration to reverse moves transferring Education Department responsibilities to other agencies, including the shift of special education programs to the Department of Health and Human Services and the transfer of school discrimination investigations to the Justice Department.
“I think it’s going to become more and more apparent that they don’t have the authority just to keep dismantling some of these offices,” said Aaron Ament, president of Student Defense. The advocacy group represents plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the dismantling of the Education Department.
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Some advocates want Democrats to pass bills despite veto threat
Some advocates hope the next Congress will be seated in time to approve a replacement for Harmeet Dhillon, an assistant attorney general who led the Justice Department’s expansive investigations into elite universities. Dhillon announced her resignation last Thursday after the midterms. Education advocates are also concerned by Trump’s decision to promote Stephen Miller, an architect of some of the administration’s most hard-line policies, to chief of staff.
Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, said the pressures facing higher education were so severe that the group endorsed political candidates for the first time during the midterms. Among them was Abdul El-Sayed, a former professor who won a closely fought campaign for Michigan’s open Senate seat. Wolfson said his organization is now focused not only on reversing Trump administration policies but also on building support for free public higher education.
“Most other countries have figured this out, and we can too,” Wolfson said.
Still, Trump’s veto power makes such a transformation unlikely over the next two years.
Trump’s second term has brought sweeping changes to federal education policy. Administration officials have reduced the Education Department’s workforce by nearly half and signed agreements shifting many of its primary responsibilities to other agencies. In higher education, the administration has targeted DEI programs and sought to restrict international enrollment, using federal funding to promote the White House’s preferred policies.
Education received less attention during midterm campaigns, which largely focused on Trump’s unpopular economic policies and the war in Iran. As Democrats develop an extensive oversight agenda, education could rank below issues such as Trump’s personal financial interests and federal immigration raids.
Although Democrats will have greater power, few expect them to overcome a presidential veto on major education legislation. Some advocates nevertheless want lawmakers to advance those bills.
“Even if he vetoes them, let’s put the pressure on to get it to his desk, and then you see what the contrast is,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Conservative groups are also urging Republicans to use the remaining legislative window to reinforce Trump’s education agenda. The day after the midterms, the Heritage Foundation called on GOP lawmakers to introduce a bill that would close the Education Department and remove references to it from federal law. The group argued that the agency, established in 1980, has failed to demonstrate its value.
The foundation urged Republicans to work with McMahon “to sunset this failed bureaucracy.”
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Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.
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