If Trump Shuts Down the Department of Education, What Happens in Florida?

“It must be disbanded. We don’t need a federal Department of Education,” said U.S. Senator Rick Scott, who agreed with President-elect Trump earlier this week.

President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants that to ‘shut down’ the US Department of Education – something he has repeated many times during his campaign, along with promises about school choice.

“I’m going to bring education back to the United States, and we’re going to do it quickly,” Trump said at a meeting in Pennsylvania in October.

What would that mean for the state of Florida?

The Education Department not only funds programs for Florida’s most vulnerable children, it also funds Pell grants (aid that helps students attend college) and manages the state’s compliance with federal laws, such as Title IX.

Critics of Trump’s plan say leaving it to the states would divert money to the state’s Family Empowerment Scholarships, one of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ key education initiatives, and allow discrimination against LGBTQ students.

But some of Florida’s top leaders in Washington agree with Trump.

“It must be disbanded. We don’t need a federal Ministry of Education.” Senator Rick Scott said earlier this week.

And Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. of Florida did not specifically discuss the idea, but he is not a fan of the department.

This week, he posted on

About 1 in every $5 for education comes from federal funds

Schools in Florida receive funding from local, state and federal funds. Those federal funds represent about 18%, according to the Florida Policy Institute (FPI), a nonprofit think tank in the state. For this year, that’s about $10.5 billion, according to Norin Dollard, senior policy analyst at FPI.

“It takes all three levels of government to ensure that the maximum resources are available to students to support their learning,” Dollard said.

While the Department funnels much of the federal government’s funding to the states, other agencies also directly fund state programs, such as the U.S. Department of Labor, the Department of Defense, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

For example, Leon County Schools received $19.6 million in federal funds for the USDA’s National School Lunch Program.

Federal funds flowing through the department support populations of children most at risk of not completing high school in Florida, Dollard said.

English language learners, Title I schools, which serve a higher concentration of students who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and students with disabilities rely on federal funding from the state for programs.

This year, the FBI gave Florida more than $830 million for special education programs and more than $1 billion was set aside for Education for the Disadvantaged. according to FBI data.

Critics fear money will be siphoned off to pay for private school vouchers

In recent years, the Legislature, under DeSantis, has expanded school choice vouchers, a move that worries Andrew Spar, the head of the Florida teachers union, who believes that leaving them up to state leadership would be the most vulnerable children would be affected if they Trump sent money from the Department of Education directly to the states.

With no limit on family income, any student in Florida can qualify for one voucher of approximately $8,000 to attend the private school of their choice with state dollars on the Family Empowerment Scholarship, provided the private school accepts them.

“Those are dollars coming out of public schools,” said Spar, president of the Florida Education Association.

According to FPI it is the price of these vouchers is growing: $2.8 billion in vouchers was allocated this year, compared to $2.1 billion in 2023-2024 and $1.4 billion in 2022-2023.

“The U.S. Department of Education is really a gatekeeper,” and leaving it to DeSantis would put students with special needs and students in poverty at risk, said Spar, who believes those buckets of money could be spent on other initiatives that align with what the governor wants.

However, some of the funding the state receives coincides with the governor’s education agenda.

The state receives more than $82 million in state Career and Technical Education (CTE) grants. In 2019, DeSantis set a goal to make Florida first in the nation in workforce training by 2030, and has since committed billions of dollars to CTE.

In Florida, February is recognized as Career and Technical Education Month. “This strategic commitment empowers the next generation to succeed and promotes a thriving economy built on a highly skilled and educated workforce,” said Diaz. in a press release this year.

Will Title IX no longer include transgender students?

The department is also responsible for ensuring that states comply with federal law, such as Title IX, a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity that receives federal funding.

However, Florida has challenged the federal government’s new interpretation of civil rights law over its expansion of protections based on gender identity. Some Florida lawmakers are concerned that Trump will embolden DeSantis’ attack on the trans and LGBTQ community.

In recent years, Florida Republicans have pushed for laws criminalizing transgender people for using the bathroom that matches their gender identity and have limited health care for transgender people.

In April, Diaz, at DeSantis’ direction, warned superintendents and school districts to hold off on implementing changes to Title IX. Florida joined other states, including Louisiana and Oklahoma, in opposing the FBI’s new regulations. In August, a judge granted the state an injunction against the new rules.

DeSantis called the new regulations a “radical rewrite” and said the rule would “impose a gender ideology on K-12 schools across the country.”

In one of his first appearances on the campaign trail, Trump echoed DeSantis’ efforts and has promised to do so rollback protections for transgender students.

In Iowa in 2023Trump said he would cut federal funding for schools that teach “critical race theory,” “transgender inanity” or “any other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content about our children.”

“We are seeing a complete reinterpretation of these programs, not only to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students, but also to remove protections against girls,” said state Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, D-Orlando.

“At least the Biden administration had some guardrails, and I fear they will be replaced by hostile individuals who will weaponize their position to discriminate against LGBTQ people across the country,” she said.

Ana Goñi-Lessan is the State Watchdog Reporter for USA TODAY – Florida and can be reached at [email protected].