Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Following the victory of President-elect Donald Trump on Election Day, calls to disband the federal Department of Education have grown louder. This would effect K-12 education, as well as higher education.
Mark Laurrie, Superintendent of the Niagara Falls City School District, details all of the funding the district receives from the federal department of education.
"We receive $8 million of federal money that comes to us in the form of title one through four, along with IDEA money that comes to us for our special needs students. We have a mental health grant totaling half a million dollars that has been directed to us through a federal application, and, of course, the Head Start program that we took ownership of about three years ago is also a federal government, even though that sits in the Department of Health and Human Services," said Laurrie in an interview with WBEN.
Laurrie believes not all of these changes will happen at once. He expects funding to deplete over the course of the next presidential administration, and eventually delegated out to the states entirely.
Dr. Meg Keller-Cogan, director of Canisius University's program in Educational Leadership and Supervision, says a small change put a wrinkle on incoming student's plans and some things need to stay within federal control.
"They changed the website and the process for applying for tuition aid and loans. It delayed college acceptances by about two months this past term. That created problems for students as they waited to see whether or not they would be able to afford college. So part of it goes to a concern about what is the alternative to the current structure, because there are some functions that must be at a federal level based upon the nature of a function. And application to college is certainly one of them," said Keller-Cogan with WBEN.
Dr. Keller-Cogan adds this is not only a national issue.
"Given the cost of education and higher education, she thinks there is an enormous impact when the funding opportunities are altered or decreased. And I think it all goes back to a larger issue that I see is that the U.S. Department of Education has a number of responsibilities," she said. "One of which is curricular, which deals with establishing high standards. Because our country basically is internationally dependent, both economically and educationally. Our students, when they leave our school systems, whether it's after high school or college or university, are in a global marketplace, and therefore their skill set must be able to compete with students from other countries in the world."