Wyoming’s top education advocacy group called the slashing of the federal Education Department’s workforce by nearly 50% harmful to the state’s students, but Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder called the cuts a “win” for local control over education.
The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) announced Tuesday that it would cut its workforce by nearly half, saying the move is part of its “final mission,” according to a statement.
The move has been expected since the election of President Donald Trump, who had pledged to close the federal department, returning education control to the states.
When Trump was inaugurated the agency’s workforce stood at 4,133 workers, but its cuts will bring it down to about 2,183, including nearly 600 employees who accepted voluntary resignation bargains in the past seven weeks.
The department says it will continue to “deliver on” all statutory programs that fall under its purview, including formula funding, student loans, Pell grants, funding for special needs students and competitive grantmaking.
The Wyoming Education Association (WEA) harbors doubts about that, indicates a statement the organization sent to Cowboy State Daily.
“The Wyoming Education Association stands in strong opposition to the dismantling of the Department of Education (DOE),” the group wrote in an email Wednesday. WEA President Kim Amen added: "Cutting staff at the U.S. Department of Education would likely have significant negative effects on the delivery of services, particularly in areas such as funding, policy implementation, and educational support."
But …
Degenfelder, conversely, applauded the federal department’s long-anticipated downsizing. It will strengthen local communities’ control over their own kids’ education, she said.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we’re taking education decisions out of the hands of unelected officials and giving them back to parents, teachers, and local communities,” Degenfelder wrote in an email Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily. “The DOE isn’t ‘closing,’ it’s relocating back to the people who actually educate our kids. That’s real reform.”
Degenfelder has voiced support in the past for the President Donald Trump’s plan to shutter the department, but said she hopes that means its regulatory “red tape” will vanish but the federal money it gives would continue – in a block-grant model sent directly to states.
Trump and U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon “understand what (Washington) D.C. never will—smaller government means bigger opportunity,” said Degenfelder. “This is a win for American students. Washington’s loss is a win for parents, teachers, and students—because real education starts at home, not in a federal office. This move will allow greater flexibility for states, who know best how to educate their students.”
The Big Lawsuit
WEA sued the state for a better and more accurate way of allocating state money to Wyoming’s school districts. The group won that lawsuit late last month when District Court Judge Peter Froelicher ruled that Wyoming lawmakers aren’t using the right, cost-based funding model required by the state Constitution’s broad promises of complete and uniform education funding.
Wyoming is exploring its options for appeal.
Now the state legislature is under a court order to redo its funding model and add on allocations for modern needs like school resource officers, enough electronic tablets or devices for every student, and school lunch programs.
Between the court order and what the WEA casts as an inevitable loss of federal funding, schools will feel the pressure, the group said in its statement, writing that the cuts "could put Wyoming students at a severe disadvantage.”
Poor students, those in rural areas, or those with special needs may suffer harm in particular, the WEA said.
Excluding pandemic-related Education Stabilization Funds, about 5.7% of the $2.1 billion in total revenue received by Wyoming school districts in fiscal year 2024 came from U.S. Department of Education federal fund, according to data from the Wyoming Department of Education.
WEA pointed to millions the federal department designated for Wyoming in fiscal year 2024, including:
- $43.2 million in IDEA Funding (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)
- $47.3 million in Title I Funding, impacting 32,518 students
- $36 million in Pell Grants, impacting 7,990 students
- $5.9 million in Career & Technical Education Grants
“More than 93% of Wyoming students learn in a public school, many thousands of them benefiting from the federal funds that the DOE provides,” said WEA. “Our students need more opportunities to succeed, and we need to strengthen, not dismantle, public education.”
‘Bureaucratic Boondoggle’
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which ensures free education to all disabled students and lists regulations and standards for the attached federal funding was passed in 1975 – predating the U.S. Department of Education by four years.
Congress narrowly passed legislation creating the DOE in 1979. It opened in 1980 with 6,400 employees.
President Ronald Reagan tried without success in the early 1980s to abolish the department, which he called a “bureaucratic boondoggle.”
The department grew over the next four decades, spending $68 billion in 2008. It spent $268 billion in 2024, according to USAFacts.org.
Trump campaigned on a promise to close it, saying it has been infiltrated by “radicals, zealots and Marxists.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
