“We’ve got to be prepared.” That was the statement coming from Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright after a bill was introduced in Washington, D.C., to abolish the U.S. Department of Education.

Carey Wright has been Maryland State Superintendent of Schools for about a year. And with the election of Donald Trump, a lot could soon change in education.

When asked about the bill during December’s state school board meeting, Wright said she hadn’t looked at it, but “what we’re trying to keep our eyes on, obviously, is the funding aspect of it.”

During the 2024 presidential campaign, President-Elect Trump ran on a platform that included abolishing the Department of Education, but did not provide many details. Now, the public is getting a better idea of what a DOE shutdown might look like.

Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican serving South Dakota, has introduced legislation that if passed would move many DOE functions to other federal agencies. Rounds says the bill will save taxpayer money on administrative costs while limiting what he describes as regulatory overreach.

According to the bill, federal programs that help students with disabilities would move to the Department of Health and Human Services. The Department of Labor would oversee career and technical education. The DOE’s Civil Rights division would move to the Department of Justice, while student loan, research and data collection would be taken over by the Treasury Department.

“We’re prepared to be partners with whoever we need to be partners with,” said Wright.

For Wright, the agency overseeing the programs matters less than Maryland students receiving the services they need. And, according to the legislation, it appears many of those student services are not being removed.

“If they’ve assigned something to HHS versus USDA, and then I’ll be a partner with HHS. I mean, it’s whatever, whoever I need to be the partner with, in order to get the work done,” Wright said.

The U.S. Department of Education was created by Congress in 1979. This year, most of its $238 billion budget will go to student aid programs for college. The rest is largely distributed to the states to fund schools in high poverty areas and to educate students with disabilities. In Maryland, about 7% of all public k-12 education dollars come from the federal government. That funding is Wright’s biggest concern.

“I think that we’ve got to be prepared if those funds get reduced in any way,” said Wright.

Wright did not explain what those preparations could look like. But she says curriculum and instruction is already largely handled on a state level. The federal government has little involvement. If funding is affected by abolishing the DOE, she says that could have a significant impact on the services students receive.

President-Elect Trump will be sworn in on Jan. 20, 2025. He has already nominated his former head of the Small Business Administration, Linda McMahon, to be the next, and potentially last, DOE secretary. Shutting down the U.S. Department of Education will require congressional approval. It’s not guaranteed to happen, and lawmakers have not yet debated the bill. But Wright says, no matter what does happens, Maryland will adapt.

“We are still continuing to do our work here and focus on the students here and focus on what we can do to improve instruction across the state,” Wright said. “And that will always be my first focus, and then we’ll wait and see what plays out.”

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