The Department of Education announced cuts to $600 million in grants to institutions and nonprofits to train educators on “divisive ideologies” in an official press release on Feb. 17. The move follows President Donald Trump’s attempts to weaken and ultimately shut down the department, a push that may disrupt research operations at certain Texas A&M colleges, according to a directive from Provost Alan Sams. 

“Training materials included inappropriate and unnecessary topics such as Critical Race Theory; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); social justice activism; “anti-racism”; and instruction on white privilege and white supremacy,” the press release said. “Additionally, many of these grants included teacher and staff recruiting strategies implicitly and explicitly based on race.”

Moreover, the order requires that “any program or activity receiving Federal assistance terminate illegal discrimination obscured under the label ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ or similar terms and programs promoting gender ideology.”

While the executive order is a strong semblance of Trump’s long-term goal to end the “education bureaucracy” and halt “divisive ideologies,” he will ultimately need congressional support to fully close the department.

Alan Sams, Executive Vice President and Provost of Texas A&M, issued a public statement after the order was signed on March 21, commenting on the department’s closure and the reimplementation of Executive Order 14151, ‘Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing’ and Executive Order 14173, ‘Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.’

“While this decision enables the federal government to resume implementation of these two orders, Texas A&M has not received any new directives from federal agencies on implementation steps,” Sams wrote.

The provost also encouraged any who have received new guidance from a federal agency to contact his office or Sponsored Research Services if it pertains to a funded project.

“In addition to the broad potential impact of this action, I recognize that there may be additional impacts to your faculty research, particularly in the College of Education and Human Development and other fields,” Sams wrote. “Please know that we are working with the deans to make sure they are empowered to help faculty, staff and students during these changes.”

While the budget-cutting  has struck the Department of Education, the potential effects for A&M are difficult to predict, even for faculty and staff.

“The Texas A&M System and University are monitoring and analyzing the various policy changes at the federal level but cannot speculate on the scope of impacts, given the fluid nature of the changes,” a university spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Battalion.

Despite a general air of uncertainty on college campuses regarding the future of higher education, Trump’s new Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, has said she’s committed to maintaining necessary programs, such as FAFSA, which grants federal student aid.

“We will continue to support K-12 students, students with special needs, college student borrowers, and others who rely on essential programs,” McMahon wrote in an official statement on March 20 following Trump’s executive order. “We’re going to follow the law and eliminate the bureaucracy responsibly by working through Congress to ensure a lawful and orderly transition.”

Trump’s executive order compares the nation’s $1.6 trillion of student loan debt to the size of Wells Fargo, but contrasts those numbers with the bank’s 200,000 employees and the Office of Federal Student Aid’s 1,500 employees, which recently lost hundreds after the Trump administration halved the department’s workforce.

Trump confirmed that student loans and Pell Grants will be preserved, but he intends to move the Financial Aid Office from the Department of Education to the Small Business Administration.

“The Department of Education is not a bank, and it must return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve America’s students,” Trump’s executive order read.