The Department of Education just laid off half its staff. How will that affect local schools?

The day after the U. S. Department of Education laid off more than 1,000 workers — slashing nearly half its staff — local education organizations were attempting to puzzle out what the changes will mean to schools and students.

President Donald Trump has said he wants to eliminate the department, giving states, and parents, more control over schools.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon has repeatedly referenced the department’s “final mission,” and said in a statement that the reductions show the department’s “commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers. This is a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system.”

The Education Department’s Philadelphia civil rights office is also closing, The Inquirer has learned. The office is a regional hub of its Office for Civil Rights, which handles parent and community concerns about possible discrimination and special education violations, among other matters.

Established in 1979, the Education Department has two marquee functions: providing oversight — for students with disabilities, homeless students, and others — and distributing billions of dollars via student loans and aid to colleges and schools.

But, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Arthur Steinberg noted at a news conference Wednesday, “what the DOE does not do is set a curriculum. All it does is make sure that the rules are enforced, and the money flows down to states.”

Issues like which books students read and which sports teams transgender students can play on were hot-button issues in the November presidential election, but those are the purview of local school boards, not the federal Education Department.

Layoffs affected the department’s Office for Civil Rights. The OCR, as it is known, exists to “ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence through vigorous enforcement of civil rights in our nation’s schools,” it says. Its employees investigate cases related to sexual and racial harassment, disability services, ensuring schools provide a free and appropriate public education, and more.

Multiple local agencies are the subject of current OCR investigations; the Philadelphia School District has five open cases alone.

Among the concerning questions the layoffs raise, Steinberg said, is what happens to the hundreds of civil rights investigations that are still pending.

In fact, the department itself said this week that its backlog was too great, noting in a release that OCR enforcement staff were told “to make resolving the backlog of complaints alleging antisemitic violence and harassment, many which were allowed to languish unresolved under the previous administration, an immediate priority.”

It was not immediately clear what dramatically shrinking the workforce will mean for the day-to-day operations of schools.

But the possibilities worry Dan McGarry, superintendent of Upper Darby schools. Officials are trying to “be levelheaded,” he said, but it is tough, with changes coming fast and furious and sometimes involving conflicting information. One thing is clear, though.

“Losing any federal funding would be a major impact,” McGarry said. Upper Darby, like many districts that educate large numbers of students from economically disadvantaged families, including Philadelphia, relies heavily on Title I funds, which go to such schools.

“Title I funds salaries,” McGarry said. “That would be a major, major problem.”

Title II funds teacher training; Title III funds English-language learners.

Even if there is no immediate financial impact, McGarry said, it is clear that there could be at any point.

“We just have to continue to stay as lean and focused as we can,” he said.

Upper Darby is exploring closing one of its schools, Charles Kelly Elementary, to save money. The school board has opted to keep the school open another year, but appears poised to order it closed the following year.

“It’s horrible to think this way, but with so much financial uncertainty facing the school district from the federal government, we have to be thinking this way,” McGarry said.

Steinberg, the PFT president, called the layoffs and turmoil “a continuing attempt by the Trump administration to defer taxpayer funds to billionaires.”

Pottstown Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez said he is monitoring the federal changes. The Montgomery County district is counting on $3.6 million in federal funds, a fraction of its $96 million proposed budget.

But in a chronically underfunded district, inadequate state funding is a bigger concern, Rodriguez said.

“I’m looking at a $9 million shortfall, regardless of what happens at the U.S. DOE,” said Rodriguez, who cited inflation and other cost pressures, like cyber charter school tuition.

Rodriguez noted that federal grants have “a ton of strings and man-hours and essentially unfunded mandates that are connected with them.” If the current federal funding streams continue, but with less regulation imposed on schools, “there could be some positive aspects,” he said.

Philadelphia receives about 10% of its funding from the federal government, Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said. He said he has received no word about potential cuts.

“We have been good stewards of the federal funding that we have received during and since the pandemic and will continue to reach out to our legislators in Congress affirming how strategic use of this funding has enabled us to meet the unique needs of our students with disabilities and has led to significant increases in math and reading test scores, student attendance, and graduation rates, and a notable decrease in our student dropout rate,” Watlington said in a statement.

Local colleges and universities are also bracing for impact.

Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, a national higher education advocacy group, called the cuts “irresponsible and harmful” and called on the administration and Congress to reverse course, especially in light of the department’s role overseeing student financial aid programs, Title I funding, and Office for Civil Rights investigations.

“This move puts the effectiveness of those programs at risk, causes nothing but chaos and confusion, and in the long-run jeopardizes the futures of the millions of students those programs serve,” Mitchell said in a statement.

Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of the Education Law Center-PA, said the layoffs are likely to be challenged in court.

The potential impact is grave, said Gordon Klehr, who added that an attempt to abolish the DOE by executive order, as Trump has signaled he will do, would be moot; only Congress has the authority to do so.

“Gutting or eliminating the department will certainly mean fewer federal resources for our most underfunded schools and a lack of federal oversight,” Gordon Klehr said in a statement.

“Besides the funding it provides, the department has played a vital role in advancing educational equity in other ways: researching promising practices; ensuring effective implementation of federal education laws through oversight, monitoring, and guidance for states and school districts; and protecting students from discrimination through civil rights enforcement,” Gordon Klehr said. “One of the department’s essential functions has been addressing inequities impacting Black and Brown students, students with disabilities, students in poverty, LGBTQ+ youth, and multilingual learners.”

Neil Makhija, a Democrat who chairs the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, worries about a potential termination of federal funding.

Students throughout Montgomery County could face $135 million in cuts, Makhija said — from $28 million for students with disabilities to $26 million for meals and snacks in childcare centers and $30 million in Pell grants and federal loans to students at Montgomery County Community College.

”Their argument is we’re not getting rid of the funding. But … when you fire everyone, there’s no one to administer the funding,” Makhija said, adding that the county has “essentially been ghosted” by the Department of Housing and Urban Development on more than $5 million in promised grants for residents in rehousing programs.

Makhija said Montgomery County has been preparing for this scenario, hiring more staff in its solicitor’s office.

”We’re going to fight for every penny in the courts,” he said.