Back in March, President Trump began carrying out a campaign promise, dismantling the Department of Education.

My administration will take all lawful steps to shut down. The department, we're going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible. It's doing us no good. We want to return our students to the states.

Well, the department is now about half the size it was before Trump took office.

Some employees took buyouts or early retirement, and nearly 1,400 federal workers were laid off,

including David Downey.

He's worked at the department for 30 years, and in March, he was placed on administrative leave.

You know, I fell in love with my job somewhere along the line, and I love helping people.

And we care. We are your neighbors. And our oath to the Constitution, it isn't going to end when Trump stops the paychecks.

Downey is concerned about what all of this upheaval will mean for schools and students

across the country.

He says President Trump's goal of returning education to the states is a quote bait and switch.

States already have the voice and the autonomy to make many, many decisions on what their curriculums look

like and their hiring and all of that. What they're doing is disenfranchising the students

in these states.

The administration says the moves give, quote, parents and states control over their children's education.

Consider this. The Trump administration has drastically changed the federal government's

role in education. What does that mean for American classrooms?

From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang.

It's consider this from NPR.

Federal education policy has seen a lot of changes since President Trump's inauguration six months ago.

There's the Department of Education itself, which Trump has vowed to close. But that hasn't

stopped the Trump administration from also wielding the department's power, most recently by withholding

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