Gov. Glenn Youngkin says Virginia is ready to take full responsibility for the state’s K-12 education following President Donald Trump’s executive order to dismantle the federal education department .

“We welcome the federal government’s shift of responsibility to the states — and we are grateful that President Trump’s executive order does just that,” Youngkin said in a statement on Thursday evening.

“The (executive order) also makes it clear that there will be no discrimination in the classrooms. We will continue to ensure every student graduates career-, college-, or military-ready.”

As Trump moves to disband the federal department, Virginia school officials say questions linger — particularly about civil rights enforcement and federal funding — although state and local governments will continue to drive most education policy and funding.

Trump cannot unilaterally stop the distribution of congressionally mandated federal education funds, like Title I funds that go to schools with high percentages of low-income students, or funds under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that support special education services. The Trump administration said the department will continue to carry out core functions such as administering Pell grants and student loans.

The U.S. Department of Education was founded, in large part, to ensure schools comply with federal civil rights laws. The department’s Office for Civil Rights, which lost 243 employees this month, conducts investigations and issues guidance on how civil rights laws should be applied, such as for students with disabilities.

Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras joins Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Jan. 29 to discuss Virginia’s scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

“It’s really going to come down to each state’s individual commitment to enforcing civil rights laws, and that is a concern to me,” said Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras.

There are 575 open investigations into Virginia schools, according to the Office of Civil Rights, and more than half of those pending investigations are on the basis of disability discrimination.

Rep. Jennifer McClellan, D-4th, noted in a recent interview that the federal government has stepped in to pass and enforce civil rights laws because states like Virginia violated the civil rights of students, first through segregation and then through Massive Resistance to the Supreme Court’s school desegregation decisions.

“If you say, ‘we are now going to give all of these responsibilities to the states,’ in some cases, it is like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse,” McClellan said in an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

“Even if that’s not a risk in the commonwealth, the states are not capable of filling this gap. ... The other reason the Department of Education was created was to help fill gaps that state and local governments had in meeting the needs of their students even when they wanted to.”

While Trump’s Thursday action will not cease education funding to states, Kamras says he is concerned about the potential for a delay in allocation of funds.

“I do worry that they could do things to perhaps slow the disbursement of those funds, which would, of course, be highly detrimental to school systems across the country, but certainly places like RPS, where Title I is really important, and of course, support for (students with disabilities) is really important,” Kamras said in an interview.

U.S. funds for local schools

About 9% of Virginia’s education funding came from the federal government in the 2020-21 school year, according to the U.S. Department of Education. In Richmond Public Schools, which has a high share of low-income students, federal funding accounted for about 18% of all education dollars.

Federal funding accounted for about 8% of education funding in Chesterfield County and about 7% in both Henrico and Hanover counties, according to federal data.

“I want our teachers and our staff to know that no Title I teachers are losing their jobs tomorrow or anything of that nature,” Kamras said. “And of course, even if they were to attempt to suspend funding, we would fight that very aggressively.”

Kamras emphasized that nothing will immediately change in local schools because of this order — but he said attempting to shutter the department has a strong symbolic impact.

“It suggests a lack of commitment to public education, which is very concerning,” he said.

Youngkin said at an event in Richmond on Wednesday that “block granting” — in which the federal government would send a lump sum to states with fewer restrictions on how it can be spent — would benefit Virginians.

Del. Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper, joined Trump at the White House on Thursday for the signing of his executive order.

Freitas said in a post on X that the federal education department has “in effect wasted hundreds of billions of dollars over the course of its existence that could have been used to help kids.”

Instead, he said, it “was used for bureaucratic bloat, job security for left-wing activists, and pushing ideological narratives on children. It is hard to imagine the kind of insanity we are seeing in our modern public schools being possible without the influence of the entrenched bureaucracy” at the education department, he said.

Trump’s order will likely be challenged in court. Several members of Congress, including Rep. Bobby Scott, D-3rd, ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education & the Workforce, said Thursday that Trump cannot singlehandedly abolish the Department of Education.

Scott said in a statement: “Legality aside, dismantling (the department) will exacerbate existing disparities, reduce accountability, and put low-income students, students of color, students with disabilities, rural students, and English as a Second Language (ESL) students at risk.”

Scott said the executive order will be used to “distract Americans from the fact that Republicans are not working to address the real problems facing students and families: widening academic achievement gaps, school shootings, and the burden of student loans.”

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said in a recent call with reporters that Trump is attempting to shutter the education department through an executive order, instead of through Congress, because he does not have the support.

“The president is doing this stuff unilaterally because he lacks the confidence that he can convince Congress to go along, even with the Republican houses, and that should tell you something about how ill-ill-considered and radical this proposal is,” Kaine said. “If he doesn’t think he can get Republican houses to agree with him, then maybe this is not a good idea.”

Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st, said in a statement last week that major policy changes, such as the elimination of a federal department, “must be thoroughly examined through the legislative process in Congress, where representatives can debate and vote on these significant issues.”