On March 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to close the U.S. Department of Education. This action threatens a critical federal agency that safeguards education and holds states accountable for ensuring equal opportunities for all students.
The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Learning for Justice program (LFJ) published a new resource on the same day, “The Role and Responsibilities of the Department of Education,” that explains five high-impact responsibilities of the department.
“Through research and data on the effectiveness of programs and policies, ensuring equal access to education, addressing key educational issues and helping to establish policies and distributing funds, the [department’s] offices and programs touch the lives of more than 50 million students in K-12 and higher education,” according to the resource.
Five key responsibilities of the department that exemplify its effect on students and promote educational excellence include the following:
- Fund research and new approaches to improving education that provide high-quality data, statistics and evaluation to inform education policies and practices.
- Ensure equal access to education and civil rights protections for all students.
- Improve education outcomes for students with disabilities through programs that ensure equal access to education and support student needs.
- Improve education for all students, closing the gap in education outcomes for students from families with low incomes and those experiencing poverty.
- Fund and support higher education access and opportunities for students to ensure the nation’s future global competitiveness.
States are — and have always been — primarily responsible for education. The department is the federal agency that plays a vital role in establishing policies, ensuring accountability and promoting equal access to education.
“The establishment of the [Department of Education] as a Cabinet-level agency in 1980 emphasized the federal government’s commitment to, and our national prioritization of, education,” according to the LFJ resource.
Dismantling the department threatens to further erode the equality of education, upend protections for some of our most vulnerable students, and widen the educational opportunities gap for students from households with low incomes.
Understanding the role and responsibilities of the agency can “help us recognize the damaging impact of actions to dismantle the department and help us formulate strategies to ensure equitable public education in communities,” according to the resource.
LFJ also published a resource to help advocate for public education that fosters excellence and equity. “Advocating for Public Education” offers recommendations on ways to support public education in your area.
You can read the full resource on the Department of Education at learningforjustice.org here and learn more about advocating for public education here.
Image at top: (Credit: SPLC)
