If President Donald Trump manages to successfully shutter the federal Department of Education and its $100 billion budget — long a goal of the GOP — how would that affect New Hampshire public schools?
Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Rebecca Perkins Kwoka (D-Portsmouth) claim the state stands to lose a lot — potentially everything, including its allotment of $450 million in federal dollars.
That’s what she told members of the Senate Executive Departments and Administration Committee on Wednesday when she testified in support of SB 303, her proposal to direct state Department of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut to “compile a report on the effects of the dissolution” of what she described as the “vital” federal DOE.
“The crux of this bill is to look closely at what the implications of its implementation will actually look like,” Perkins Kwoka told committee members. “We have to protect this system and work together to avoid this downshift and burden to our neighborhood communities.”
New Hampshire Commissioner of Education Frank Edelblut testifies regarding federal education funding as NH Senate minority leader Rebecca Perkins-Kwoka (D-Portsmouth) looks on.
Edelblut has a very different view of the outcome.
“We again take control of our education here in the state so that we don’t have some faraway bureaucrats in Washington dictating how we engage our communities,” he told the committee.
“Over $4 billion in funds go towards supporting the administration of the (federal) Department of Education, and it’s unclear if those would go into savings at the federal level and be pushed back to taxpayers, or if those savings top-off some of those pass-through grants to the department,” Edelblut. “Either way, the taxpayers would be the beneficiary.”
Edelblut’s second four-year term as commissioner is scheduled to end later this year. Gov. Kelly Ayotte has indicated she’s going to nominate a new commissioner, but Edelblut will serve through the end of the 2024-2025 school year in a “holdover” capacity.
Funding and operating public schools has long been a state and local government issue. The federal Department of Education didn’t even exist until 1980 According to the National Center for Education Statistics, federal funding covers around 11 percent of total elementary and secondary public school spending nationwide. Republicans say the $100 billion would be better spent given directly to the states, cutting out the Washington, D.C. middleman.
The Trump administration proposes allowing federal school funding to flow down to states by way of block grants. Because federal funding tends to go to low-income states, New Hampshire gets a smaller share than most.
The top states for federal DOE funding are Mississippi, New Mexico, Louisiana, and Alaska. Mississippi got about 23 percent of its public school revenues from the federal government.
By comparison, New Hampshire gets around nine percent of its school funding from the feds. If the department were shut down and federal education dollars were simply doled out as block grants, New Hampshire would almost certainly be a winner.
Critics argue federal block grant funds could be redirected in Concord away from public schools. Edelblut said in his testimony that New Hampshire already has a mechanism it uses to make sure funds wind up where they’re supposed to — the state legislature.
“You all would be weighing in terms of how that happens,” he told the committee. “We’d have not so much a static rapport so much as a collaborative conversation where you all are telling me how to do that, and I’m telling you how to implement it.”
State Sen. Debra Altschiller (D-Stratham) expressed skepticism – and some mild annoyance.
“I understand how the process works when the money comes through the legislature,” she told Edelblut. “This legislation is asking for your department to provide data outcomes on how it’s going to roll out. It’s asking for some very specific things.”
Edelblut offered a measured response.
“It would be more of a dialogue, not unlike when we received pass-through funds associated with COVID,” he said. “We worked closely with the legislature to make sure those funds were distributed the way that you wanted them to be distributed.”
Edelblut added that the “reporting mechanism” requested by Perkins Kwoka and other Democrats unnecessarily “establishes a bit of rigidity in the process,” which could wind up hurting “that opportunity to dialogue and work collaboratively to make those funds pass through to our schools.”
“In fact if you were to pass this and give me this list and I could absolutely respond, my concern is that you’d be limiting yourself,” he said.
State Sen. Bill Gannon (R-Sandown) then asked if the Democrats’ push for a detailed report is premature.
“We might be jumping the gun,” said Edelblut.
Edelblut offered more pointed criticism of federal government efficiency during an exchange with state Sen. Tara Reardon (D-Concord) when asked if his department is prepared to “implement federal funding at the state level.”
“We again take control of our education here in the state so that we don’t have some faraway bureaucrats in Washington dictating how we engage our communities,” he said.
Edelblut refused to take the bait when asked directly by Gannon if Perkins Kwoka’s proposal should be dumped in the form of an inexpedient-to-legislate designation.
“I’m an agency, we don’t tell you how to vote, we just implement whatever you give us, so I’m just trying to share with you my observations about this statute,” he said.
Trump, meanwhile, has already begun the process of dismantling the DOE.
His administration announced on March 11 that half of the department’s 4,000-plus employees will be laid off this month.
