What the end of the US Department of Education would mean for Maine
By Billy Kobin, Bangor Daily News Staff
Although President Donald Trump held off on March 6 on an anticipated order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, school officials in Maine and other states are still preparing for the Republican to follow through on his long-discussed promise.
A draft of Trump’s executive order reportedly called on new Education Secretary Linda McMahon to prepare the closure of the department by taking all steps “permitted by law.” The White House said Thursday that Trump is not signing the order, with top administration officials reportedly concerned over a lack of messaging in place ahead of such a move.
Getting rid of the Education Department formally would require congressional approval, but Trump has the power to continue cutting staff and training programs. The uncertainty comes amid the Republican’s administration finding Maine violated federal civil rights law by allowing transgender girls to compete in sports aligned with their gender identity, though state and local officials said no federal officials contacted them during the swift, four-day investigation.
Next steps regarding the U.S. Department of Education are unclear, but here’s what we know about federal education dollars that flow to Maine.
One in 10 education dollars in Maine come from the federal government.
About 10 percent of Maine’s public school funding comes from the federal government, officials said. Maine’s K-12 schools received an estimated $174.9 million in federal education grants in the current fiscal year, with $163.1 million going to postsecondary and other areas.
The Legislature’s education committee received those 2025 estimates last month from the Maine Education Policy Research Institute. It broke down how $61.8 million in Title I funding goes to Maine’s disadvantaged K-12 students, $71.6 million supports special education, $7.2 million helps with career and technical education and $125.4 million in Pell Grant funding helps low-income students attend college.
The Maine Department of Education receives federal grants and distributes them to local districts using a formula based on U.S. Census data, student populations, poverty levels and other factors. Spokesperson Chloe Teboe said the state-level department does not track additional federal funds that certain districts get directly.
Federal dollars especially help rural schools in northern Maine.
While the amount of federal funding going to Maine schools varies from year to year, it often accounts for a larger portion of spending in more rural areas of the state, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
In 2022, some districts in rural areas such as Washington and Aroostook counties, which went to Trump in his elections, received between 15 and 30 percent of their funds from the federal government.
McMahon said funding won’t go away. Local officials aren’t sure.
Before the Republican-led U.S. Senate voted to confirm her along party lines, McMahon repeatedly told lawmakers she thinks she can dismantle the Education Department without affecting federal education funding.
But current and retired education leaders on both sides of the political spectrum are skeptical about that. Former state Rep. Paul Stearns, R-Guilford, who was also a school superintendent for a decade, said he likes the idea of the Trump administration giving block grants to local communities if it eliminates a “whole level of bureaucracy.”
“But the devil is in the details, and we don’t know any of the details,” Stearns said. “If the [federal] money is not coming forward, then there’s going to be screaming and hollering.”
Maine Education Association President Jesse Hargrove noted communities across Maine have voted down school budgets amid skepticism from residents over how spending affects tax rates. Added uncertainty from the federal government causes “an extreme amount of stress” on administrators and staff, added Hargrove, whose Democratic-aligned union has 24,000 members in Maine.
“We hear about the dismantling, but we don’t hear about any of the actual replacement plans, how we could better serve students with special needs [or] how we could better serve students from remote and rural areas,” Hargrove said.