This article by Shauneen Miranda appeared on Colorado Newsline on February 11, 2025.
The U.S. Education Department was hit with hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts after the Department of Government Efficiency announced its latest terminations of contracts Monday.
The 45-year-old department has been on the chopping block as President Donald Trump and his administration continue to take sweeping steps to slash federal government spending. The president also campaigned heavily on a pledge to eliminate the Education Department and could soon issue an executive order that diminishes the agency.
Trump’s nominee to lead the very department he wants to abolish — former World Wrestling Entertainment executive Linda McMahon — is set to appear before a Senate panel for her confirmation hearing Thursday.
Trump said he wants McMahon “to put herself out of a job.”
The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, said in a post on social media Monday it terminated 89 contracts totaling $881 million.
DOGE, led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, also said it cut 29 diversity, equity and inclusion training grants worth $101 million.
One of those initiatives “sought to train teachers to ‘help students understand / interrogate the complex histories involved in oppression, and help students recognize areas of privilege and power on an individual and collective basis,’” DOGE said.
Meanwhile, the Institute of Education Sciences, part of the Education Department focused on statistics and research, is also a major target of the cuts. Nearly 170 contracts were terminated within IES, according to the American Educational Research Association and the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics on Monday.
Part of the institute includes the National Center for Education Statistics, which is the “primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the United States and other nations.”
Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat representing Washington state, lambasted DOGE’s decision to effectively gut the research arm of the Education Department.
In a Monday statement, Murray said “an unelected billionaire is now bulldozing the research arm of the Department of Education — taking a wrecking ball to high-quality research and basic data we need to improve our public schools.”
“Cutting off these investments after the contract has already been inked is the definition of wasteful,” Murray said, adding that “Musk doesn’t care if working class kids in America get a good education, so whittling down the Department of Education means nothing to him.”
The Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday regarding the cuts.