Lt. Gov. Coleman: Dismantling the US Dept. of Education will harm KY students ‘irreparably’
If the U.S. Department of Education is dismantled “it is states like Kentucky that will suffer the most,” Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman said Wednesday in Louisville.
At the IBEW Local 369, Coleman said that was was “here to sound the alarm” on the impact to Kentucky, should Republican President Donald Trump follow through with his promise to dismantle the federal agency.
She spoke alongside two parents — Angela Barber and Ashley Barlow — who said their children will be harmed by these potential cuts to federal funding.
“On a macro level, just think about what it says to our kids, our communities, our country and the world that the United States of America would rather dismantle the U.S. Department of Education than invest in the kids and families that need it most,” Coleman said.
Coleman, a former educator, added that politicians should stop using “students as political footballs.”
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In recent years, Republicans have increasingly called for the DOE to be dismantled — a request that gained legitimacy when Trump took office in January and promised to do just that.
Trump has already slashed the department’s workforce roughly in half by firing more than 1,300 employees. National media outlets reported earlier this month that Trump was poised to sign an executive order that would’ve directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all the necessary steps” to shutter the agency. That meeting was reportedly called off.
Should this happen, Coleman said, three programs that rely on federal funds would be “irreparably harmed: Title I schools, supports for special education students and federal aid programs.
Of the 1,484 schools in Kentucky, 926 are Title I, a designation for schools that serve low-income students and families, Coleman said. That means 60% of students in Kentucky qualify for free and reduced lunch, and “the same number of students depend on Medicaid,” she added.
More than 114,000 public school students benefit from funding from the Individuals with Disabilities Act, and in 2024, Kentuckians received more than $370 million in federal Pell Grants.
If the Department of Education is done away with, “the states who will suffer the most are places like Kentucky, and the people who stand to lose the most are our most vulnerable,” she said.
