State representative pushes for task force to examine the impact of President Trump’s education cuts

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President Donald Trump’s Department of Education cuts remain popular with Tennessee Republican leaders, but uncertainty surrounding their impact on schools prompted a Sumner County GOP lawmaker to push for a task force to examine the possible implications.

Representative William Slater, R-Gallatin, brought the legislation to the House Education Committee on Wednesday. It would create what he calls a federal education deregulation cooperation task force charged with investigating the Tennessee impact of recent presidential administration efforts to slash the federal Department of Education (DOE). The seven-member task force would be comprised of the chair of the state House Education Committee, the chairs of two education committees in the state Senate, two members of the state Senate appointed by the lieutenant governor, and a licensed educator appointed by the governor.

In March, President Trump ordered Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the agency. Many Tennessee Republicans, including Governor Bill Lee, support the move. For now, the federal DOE continues to oversee so-called “critical functions” including special education funding and enforcement of civil rights laws. However, President Trump has made it clear he’d like to dissolve the agency completely, making the long-term implications for local Tennessee students unclear.

Slater told committee members that uncertainty prompted him to establish the task force.

State Representative William Slater (Photo by the Tennessee General Assembly)

“Those changes could come very rapidly,” said Slater. “This task force will be charged with keeping up with those changes and making sure that we are prepared as a legislative body, as policy makers in education.”

Under the bill, the task force would be charged with identifying all federal funding for K-12 education, federal requirements for receiving funds, identifying all state resources needed to receive federal funds, and identifying the number of federally funded employment positions. They would then determine whether programs or resources provided by federal dollars in Tennessee should continue and provide a report with their recommendations to lawmakers.

Retired teacher Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, pointed out that much of that information is already available from the Tennessee Department of Education. She said the possibility of further cuts to the federal agency could mean changes that would fall outside the outlined scope of the task force.

“We know special education and career technical education is also included in that funding,” said Johnson. “But the reality is if they were to do away with the (federal) department there’s no guarantee that a penny will come to Tennessee. So, I’m concerned about putting together a group before we know exactly what the deregulation is.”

Slater agreed, but said the unclear future of the federal DOE and possible implications for Tennessee schools were exactly why a task force is needed now.

“And that’s exactly the purpose of this task force, is we don’t know what is going to happen,” answered Slater. “So, it’s incumbent on us as policy makers to be sure we keep up with what changes at the federal level might affect students at the state level and at the local level. I think we would be caught flat footed if we come in here in January and there have been items that have been changed at the federal level and we’re not well prepared as a legislative body.”

“We’re going to be caught flat footed if the funding is not there and we’ll have to have a special session to allocate funding I would imagine,” Johnson pushed back.

“Again, you are correct that we don’t know what the government is going to do,” replied Slater, who pointed to an effort during Trump’s first term to consolidate federal aid to state education systems into a single grant.

“There’s been some indication by the federal administration that funds may come to the states in block grants. Well, we certainly don’t want to be slow as a legislative body about enacting legislation that would be able to draw down those block grants,” he said.

The bill passed on 14-3 on party lines. It now heads to the House Finance, Ways, and Means Committee.