As the nation considers the merits of abolishing the Department of Education, block grants have been floated as a means to continue federal fiscal support for education even after many federal educational programs end.
Block grants are a form of federal funding that would dispense certain fixed amounts of money to each state, allowing the respective states programmatic flexibility to use the block grants to address a variety of educational issues as they see fit.
Some national educational leaders are excited by this possibility.
“All states would like more flexibility and freedom,” Jim Blew, a former Education Department official from Trump’s first term, was reported saying, per the AP. “This would be a full block grant, no strings attached.”
Other figures are outraged.
“We know, for example, what Texas would do,” Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, said during a recent podcast appearance. “They’ll use it for vouchers. So they won’t give [federal funding] to the kids who have it now; they’ll just give it for vouchers.”
There was less contrast between Texas’ educational activists, including two who rarely agree.
Lynn Davenport is best known for her advocacy against “school choice” programs, which can include vouchers and education savings accounts. She has previously advocated for the Texas legislature to hold an “un-session” where they would primarily repeal bad education bills rather than pass new ones.
The Dallas Express reached out to Davenport for her perspective on block grants.
“I generally do not support new bills unless they are to repeal bad ones or to audit and expose fraud, waste, and abuse. In anticipation of the dismantling of DOE there’s a provision in HB5419 that says TEA may not keep federal block grants that could and should go directly to schools for teacher pay, school safety & Special Ed,” Davenport said.
She then shared a video of herself speaking at the Texas Capitol. In the video, she explains that the proposed law would get Texas schools “back to the basics,” which she defines as “paying teachers and training them [with money saved by no longer sending money to the TEA consultants and vendors].”
.@Lynnsdavenport is right: The TEA is in dire need of accountability to cut back on wasteful government spending that does nothing to help our kids in the classroom.
My bill, HB 5419, gets us back to basics.
Fund Our Teachers
Fund School Safety
Fund Special Education pic.twitter.com/WOAu9j0guH— Gina Hinojosa (@GinaForAustin) March 25, 2025
Corey DeAngelis, the “school choice evangelist,” made a different but concurrent point. In a recent editorial he penned for Newsmax, he indicated his support for a federal bill authored by Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) titled the “Returning Education to Our States Act.”
DeAngelis wrote, “It aligns with the Trump Administration’s goal by using the Treasury Department to send education funding back to the states in the form of block grants. If anything, states would have more money to spend on education since less of the funding would be wasted on thousands of useless bureaucrats in D.C. States would also have more local control to spend the money as they see fit to support the education of their constituents. And more money could make its way into the classroom if less of it is spent dealing with federal mandates.”
DeAngelis hit back at critics of abolishing the Department of Education who argue that civil rights protections and programs for those with special needs would be lost if the Department dissolved.
“[The] main bill to abolish the Department of Education addresses both of those concerns. The programs for students with special needs would move to the Department of Health and Human Services and civil rights enforcement would be handled by the Department of Justice,” explained DeAngelis.
The future of the Department of Education remains unclear. When a Fox News anchor asked Education Secretary Linda McMahon if the President intended to delete the Department, McMahon responded, “He’s been very clear about that; he couldn’t be anymore clear when he said he wants me to put myself out of a job.”
However, neither Trump nor McMahon can end the Department unilaterally. While McMahon has announced layoffs of around half of the Department’s employees, the Department of Education has statutory backing that Congress can only reverse.