On Tuesday, June 3, 2025, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon defended the U.S. Department of Education’s (USDE) FY 26 Budget at a Senate hearing on Capital Hill. The budget recommends a total of $66.7 billion for all USDE activities, which would be $12 billion, or 15.3%, less than its current funding level. For the K-12 portion of the budget, the goal is a $4.5 billion cut.

Items of contention included the cancellation of about $1 billion in multi-year school-based mental health grants that were previously awarded to support students’ well-being. Also, several Republican and Democratic senators pleaded with McMahon to rethink a proposal to zero out $1.2 billion in federal TRIO programs that provide outreach and support for students from disadvantaged backgrounds in their academic paths from middle school through post baccalaureate programs. Several senators also questioned McMahon about the enforcement of civil rights in schools, especially as the USDE, since January, fired or accepted “buyouts” from about half its staff. Even before the staff reductions and the closing of over half of OCR offices, several civil rights advocates said OCR was understaffed.

The FY 26 budget proposal recommends reducing OCR’s budget from $140 million to $91 million and McMahon was asked about the justification for the workforce reductions across the agency and if it had studied the effects on the education system before the reductions took place. McMahon said a study hadn’t been conducted, but that restructuring staff can be “painful.”

According to McMahon, she and President Donald Trump have set a goal for the “responsible” closure of the USDE.

Currently, the federal government is technically operating on the approved FY 2024 budget because an extension of the FY 2024 budget, or continuing resolution for FY 2025, runs through September 30, 2024. The 2026 fiscal year then starts on October 1st. However, despite the already approved allocations of funding, McMahon said the USDE is analyzing the unallocated dollars to determine which programs to fund as the clock ticks and the time for distribution is running out, which could have legal implications.

On June 3rd, the USDE released its FY 26 budget justification. Click here to view it.

For more from K-12, click here.