Colorado officials and education advocates watched anxiously as the Trump administration's mission of reducing the federal workforce put the U.S. Department of Education on the chopping block. Now, uncertainty about the future of the state’s department and some crucial services continues to stoke the anxiety.
The federal department of education announced late Tuesday that it is laying off 50 percent of its 4,100-employee workforce. Those staff members will be placed on administrative leave beginning Friday, March 21.
It’s unclear what the impacts would be on education in Colorado or how many federal education employees work in the state.
“While it is difficult to predict the full impact of these cuts, our priorities in Colorado remain unchanged: ensuring that every child starts strong, stays engaged, and graduates ready for success in college, careers, and life,” said Jeremy Meyer, communications director for the Colorado Department of Education. “Many critical student services depend on federally committed resources, and we remain hopeful that these reductions will not disrupt Colorado’s ability to meet the needs of our students.”
What is at stake
The U.S. department said it will continue to fund all statutory programs that are mandated by law. That includes funding for children in high-poverty schools, special needs students, student loans, Pell Grants, and competitive grants.
Colorado has approximately 1,903 schools serving 881,065 public school students, 55,000 teachers and 4,100 administrators. The state received $870,229,410 million in federal funding for this school year.
The core roles of the federal department of education are allocating billions in institutional aid, funding children with additional needs, such as low-income and homeless children, distributing student loans and grants, and enforcing federal civil rights laws in schools and institutions of higher education.
Colorado’s school superintendents are worried.
“When you go from 4,000 employees to 2,000 employees in a day, where will that show up?” said Bret Miles, executive director of the Colorado Association of School Executives, which represents the state’s school superintendents.
He said since dollars are already appropriated, schools will hopefully continue to get funds. But with so few federal staff, superintendents worry schools might not be able to access the money quickly or get timely reimbursements.
“What is the ripple effect coming?”
Civil rights enforcement
The civil rights division has 11 regional offices outside of the D.C. office. Chalkbeat reported that the teams in half the civil rights offices – those based in Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Cleveland, Boston and New York — were let go. Denver has a regional office.
Disability Law Colorado, which helps ensure protections for students with disabilities, called slashing the federal workforce a “reckless decision.” Emily Harvey, the organization’s co-legal director, is worried the move will weaken enforcement of federal civil rights laws.
Families file complaints about racial discrimination, sexual harassment, severe bullying of students with disabilities, or special education plans not being followed with their regional office. Harvey has heard some of the staff at Denver’s regional office either took the federal government “buyout” or left because of federal instability.
“There's been no articulation of what those families are supposed to do now that their regional office has been gutted,” said Harvey. “There's the potential of a huge impact on families and students with disabilities in Colorado because there are not going to be the staff within the Office of Civil Rights to appropriately and effectively handle issues that are brought to their attention.”
Colorado has 223 pending civil rights investigations with the federal department of education’s Office for Civil Rights. Civil rights groups and others in Colorado say they have received no information if those investigations are continuing.
Disability Law Colorado has not received any communication from the federal government on whether its pending complaint regarding school choice and students with disabilities is still being investigated.
Harvey said that shutting down the Department of Education would not only jeopardize the enforcement of civil rights laws but also widen the gaps in teacher training and student support.
“Without proper oversight, schools are less likely to follow the law and more likely to engage in suspensions, expulsions, informal removals, restrictive placements, seclusion, and restraint,” she said.
Supporters applaud announcement
President Donald Trump has repeatedly reiterated that the goal is to dramatically scale back the federal government’s role in education returning authority to the states and shut down the department though that would require congressional action.
Twelve Republican governors signed a letter, as first reported in The 74, asking for the department to send federal funding to states as block grants. That would give states the flexibility to distribute money how they see fit.
Brenda Dickhoner, executive director of Ready Colorado, a conservative education advocacy group, said she would support that. She was excited to see the announcement that federal staff would be slashed. She said it is vital that all the statutory funding to students in need is maintained, “but our goal is driving dollars into the classroom and reducing administrative staff.”
“Let's give schools flexibility to use resources,” she said. “They know what their students need. They know what their communities need.”
She said the federal government has a bloated bureaucracy, and it doesn’t make sense that resources are tied up at that level. Dickhoner worked at the Colorado Department of Education for several years and said there were many strings attached to federal dollars that were cumbersome and didn’t make sense.
“I'm all for flexibility and making sure those funds that are flowing to states come with ample flexibility and in exchange for that, there should still be accountability.”
She does not want to lose federal requirements that state administer a standardized test and participate in the national standardized test, the NAEP assessment. She also wants to maintain requirements that data is collected by student groups, so as to ensure continued support for students who aren’t performing as well.
Miles, too, is worried about losing access to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
“We've leaned on that group for valuable data — enrollment trends, graduation rates, the demographics of the teaching force, how we spend our money.”
Worries over services and support
But many education advocates are worried that gutting the agency will severely impact the ability to support students and will throw federal education programs into chaos.
Others are worried the cuts will significantly impact the quality of teachers in Colorado classrooms. States could weaken commitments to high standards without a federal backstop. The federal government issues the Nation’s Report Card, which allows education advocates to compare performance between states. Some organizations rely on data the federal education department regularly produces on student achievement, workforce trends, and teacher quality.
Title II data provides insights into the supply and demand of teachers in states. Also up in the air is what becomes of federal accountability requirements for student performance.
Gutting the Department of its staff will weaken the agency’s capacity to perform these critical functions–and will likely contribute to worsening results for students, said the National Council for Teacher Quality.
Higher education
While the federal department said it is going to maintain Pell Grants and other federal loans, dramatically cutting support staff could leave thousands of Colorado students without assistance to navigate their loans. Colorado students rely on federal loans, grants and work-study assistance. Nearly 775,000 Coloradans have student loans, owing an average of $37,400 each.
The Colorado Department of Higher Education said it is closely monitoring news from the federal government.
“Given the uncertainty around which components will be removed or go to the states, we’re not in a position to know federal impacts yet,” it said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration cut off access to affordable repayment options and purged staff charted with responding to borrower complaints and ensuring defrauded students get relief.
“Young people in Colorado, especially borrowers, already face an uphill battle when it comes to reaching financial independence and stability,” said Arianna Morales, deputy director of New Era Colorado, which advocates on youth and student issues. “This decision to cut 50 percent of USDOE’s workforce is a clear sign that this administration does not prioritize the economic security of our generation.”
She said federal workers help ensure the process for paying back student loans is fair, consistent and transparent.
“Instead, borrowers are left without their support and are now more likely to be preyed upon and exploited by the servicing industry, getting lost in an already complex and inaccessible system that takes advantage of them.”
On March 8, Trump signed an executive order excluding some public servants from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. The program forgives the remaining balance on eligible federal student loans for those working for qualifying public service employers. Congress would have to approve significant changes to the program.
If the program is eliminated, 66,900 public service employees In Colorado would be denied an average of $68,900 in loan relief, according to the Student Borrower Protection Center, a national organization.
Other cuts impacting Colorado schools
In addition to the layoffs, the department has already begun slashing non-statutorily mandated programs, such as teacher training programs, and canceled $900 million in education research and data-gathering contracts. A district court judge on Monday issued a temporary restraining order to protect $600 million in grant programs for teacher training programs. Colorado was one of seven states to sue.
The University of Colorado Denver had a $6.5 million grant for the training of rural teachers. About $2.8 million was left when the university got the termination order. It partnered with four community colleges and 57 rural school districts. The termination order led to 50 rural teachers losing their jobs and directly impacted 77 college students who were in the process of becoming teachers as well as eight recent graduates.
Attorney General Phil Weiser said the elimination of critical teacher preparation grants will have devastating impacts on rural schools.
“When schools are unable to find qualified teachers, students suffer,” he said. “Teacher shortages can result in larger class sizes, canceled courses, or classes staffed with teachers less able to teach a subject. We need to do everything we can to build a brighter future for our kids, and that is why I am fighting to stop the federal government from harming our rural schools.”
The court has tentatively scheduled a hearing on March 28 on the state’s motion for a preliminary injunction. If granted, the preliminary injunction would block the administration from moving forward with the cuts as the case goes to trial.
Federal funding for school meals under threat
It’s also unclear right now the extent to which there will be cuts to school meals and other nutrition services children receive.
This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture canceled more than $7.5 million in funding for Colorado initiatives that help schools and food banks purchase food from local farms and ranches. Colorado was one of 40 states that have participated in the Local Food for Schools program. It also helped food banks distribute healthy food.
“By cutting this funding, the Trump administration is taking away healthy meals from school children and slashing contracts Colorado farmers depend on to support their businesses and workers,” said Gov. Jared Polis. “Instead of helping communities put food on the table, this decision pulls resources from schools, food banks, and Colorado families.
In addition, approximately $330 billion in cuts has been proposed in a U.S. House budget proposal. A proposal would change a rule that allows schools that serve large numbers of children from families with low incomes to offer school meals at no charge to all students. The proposed cuts would impact approximately 206,293 children in Colorado, according to research from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Food Research and Action Center.
‘We don’t have a lot of direction’
Superintendents are also worried about the long-term future of funding
Miles said superintendents aren’t feeling confident.
“I think that the biggest piece of anxiety when you talk with superintendents is just that uncertainty, where is the next biggest change? Nothing that gives us confidence….we don't have a lot of direction.”
While Tuesday’s press release from the federal department of education stated that federal funding for high-poverty schools (the law is known as Title I) will continue, Project 2025, which has significantly influenced Trump administration policies so far, states that “Title I … should be phased out.” (p. 350.)
Meanwhile, one national poll shows more than six in 10 U.S. residents either oppose or strongly oppose getting rid of the U.S. Department Of Education.
