NEW HANOVER COUNTY — Cape Fear leaders spanning local government to federal have entered the ring on opposite sides over the U.S. Department of Education as the Trump Administration’s threats inch closer to potential reality.
New Hanover County Board of Education member Tim Merrick, a Democrat, was featured on CNN Monday to debate the U.S. Department of Education’s value alongside Andrew Hayes, trustee of a San Diego school district.
In the interview, Merrick said without federal money, schools “will not be taking care of our most disadvantaged students.
“That is just a crisis that we cannot have,” Merrick said.
In 2025, the Department of Education distributed $119.1 billion to public schools across the country, including for programs like Title I, which supplements low-achieving children in high-poverty schools; IDEA, which provides schools with resources to support students with disabilities; and the National School Lunch Program, which ensures children are fed in schools despite their families’ incomes.
The department also oversees enforcement of civil rights across the United States and collects data from around the nation to analyze trends and put forth solutions.
Though discussed in conservative circles for years, President Donald Trump has indicated he would eliminate the department upon election as part of his, and Elon Musk’s, attempts to rein in federal spending they deem unnecessary.
Merrick pushed back on this in conversation with PCD Tuesday.
“The fact that the government is bureaucratic is to prevent the sort of things that Musk is doing right now,” Merrick said. “By slowing things down and making you cross your t’s and dot your i’s, it prevents stripping away the rights of the people who don’t have the power to protect them.”
Should the department be cut, the Trump administration has not indicated if its funding and programs would be shifted to other federal agencies or to state or local governments.
The department was created by Congress and would need a Congressional vote to be abolished, though the administration has so far ignored Congress’ authority in other executive orders.
The Trump administration is said to be drafting an executive order asking the legislature to eliminate the department. Stepping up to the plate is Rep. David Rouzer, North Carolina District 7 encompassing the Cape Fear region.
Rouzer introduced a bill in January, the State’s Education Reclamation Act of 2025, that would eliminate the Department of Education, shift some of its programs to other cabinet agencies and direct remaining funding to the states.
North Carolina does already control the bulk of school district revenue, making up nearly 60% of NHCS’ budget, and though the federal government’s dollars may ensure the neediest children are cared for, the state does provide funding and grant opportunities for special populations.
According to NHCS budget documents posted online, county funding makes up 30%, while federal funding was projected at 8%, or about $26.6 million. After publication, board member Pat Bradford shared the current year’s makeup puts the federal contribution at 6.3%, or $20 million.
Port City Daily asked the other New Hanover County Board of Education members to weigh in on the department’s future, some of them siding with Rouzer.
Board member David Perry said he has been advocating for a reduction of reliance on federal dollars for years.
“I’m all for local control, like school boards are in the best position to make decisions on how to make our school district better,” Perry said. “I want the state to owe us a lot of money, but I don’t want a lot of strings attached.”
Bradford was more in favor of state control.
“In my opinion, this would be a huge benefit for every one of the 115 school districts in our state as well as every other state in the nation,” Bradford, a Republican, said. “Here it would have to be spent on education. It could be a huge win-win. The mechanics of it I will leave to those a lot smarter than me.”
In Rouzer’s bill, several items in the department would be transferred to other cabinet agencies within the federal government, including the Pell grant, federal student loan program, and IDEA grant programs.
As for other funding, the feds would write a check to the states through 2033, with the stipulation no person be barred from any program funded with the money based on race, color, national origin, sex and disability. States would be responsible for compliance oversight.
This transfer means continuing programs like Title I, child nutrition, and pre-K would be up to each state’s discretion on whether to continue funding.
Port City Daily asked Bradford and Perry if they trusted North Carolina to oversee federal funding, should it be transferred to the states; Perry said he would like to see as much localized control as possible, but Bradford said had full faith in the General Assembly.
Bradford added the board would lobby the General Assembly for more funding for IDEA. When it was enacted in 1975, IDEA was intended to cover up to 40% the cost of programming for students with Individualized Education Programs. However, the program only covers around 14.7% of the cost nationally, Bradford sharing it’s around 13.5% this year. The board member also wants to continue advocating for increased employee pay.
“The state funding formula needs an overhaul,” Bradford said. “This could be the perfect opportunity for that.”
Pete Wildeboer was the only person not to respond. Josie Barnhart and Melissa Mason said they would adapt to changes.
“If [federal funding] goes back to the states rather than local, state and federal advocacy, I will turn focus to both local and state,” Barnhart said.
Mason similarly said she anticipates the district will continue to prioritize the needs of students and the community regardless of any changes at the federal level.
“It is my firm belief that the district’s role is to ensure that we are delivering high-quality, and accessible education at the local level, tailored to meet the unique needs of our community,” Mason said. “The recent successes of our schools — such as 32 schools meeting or exceeding growth, and 50% of our schools receiving an A or B performance grade — are a direct reflection of our focus on local excellence.”
The state debate
Elected officials and education leaders across the political spectrum have been critical of North Carolina’s per-pupil funding model and its education spending compared to ability.
The Education Law Center’s latest report (on data from 2022) shows North Carolina ranks 48th among states in funding level, which measures state and local funding per student adjusted for cost of living, and 49th in funding effort, funding as a proportion of the state’s gross domestic product.
In fact, the New Hanover County school board has frequently chafed against the state’s way of running things.
For instance, the board spent almost the entirety of 2023 trying to configure a satisfactory school calendar for all students when a tweak in the state’s calendar law could have fixed the problem. As lobbied for by businesses in the tourism industry, the law bars traditional schools from starting any earlier than the Monday closest to Aug. 25; depending on how the days fall, this could result in a full week in the first semester of the year, which makes a difference for high schoolers trying to take exams before going on a two-week winter break.
In 2023, the school board voted 4-3 for a resolution opposing a state bill proposed by Rep. Frank Iler (R-Brunswick) to share more of their funding with charter schools, which are not bound by the same academic and support services standards as traditional public schools.
The state legislature has also fought against a 1994 case, now referred to as the Leandro case, that found the state was underfunding education to the point of violating the state constitution. A court-ordered consultant eventually drafted a $6 billion Comprehensive Remedial Plan billion to recruit qualified educators and provide equitable funding. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration agreed to a multi-year roadmap to reach that goal, but the Republican-led General Assembly has been resistant.
Superior Court Judge David Lee ordered the state treasurer to release $1.7 billion to cover a portion of the plan, and the North Carolina Supreme Court upheld the ruling in 2022, but the court is now revisiting the case after it switched to a Republican majority in 2023.
Then there are the state’s controversial opportunity scholarships. Whereas previously reserved for low-income families seeking private school options, the program was expanded in 2023 to allow any family to apply regardless of income, expanding school choice options to a wider range of people. In this fiscal year, the state is dedicating $541.5 million tax dollars for students to attend private school, a fact condemned by several New Hanover County school board members.
Board member Judy Justice mentioned the scholarships as reason not to trust the General Assembly to distribute federal funds in an equitable manner, though she noted this could be true across the nation.
“Some states don’t have enough resources or enough concern for their kids, and so it’s very unequal and very unfair,” Justice said. “Some states are quite wealthy and can do a very good job, and they’re more inclined to share with everybody.”
Office for Civil Rights
Justice elaborated that she grew up before the Department of Education was created — which President Jimmy Carter did in 1979 — where she saw poorer kids who went without meals and education for students with disabilities be largely ignored.
This is where the department’s Office for Civil Rights comes in. OCR provides oversight in enforcing federal civil rights laws in schools that receive federal funding. These laws, such as Title IX, prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin, sex, disability, and age.
Justice and Merrick brought up the federal government’s role as a discrimination watchdog, the latter board member noting it took some states years — and the threat of withholding federal funds — to comply with Brown v. Board of Education.
Not only does the department’s Office for Civil Rights audit records and report submitted by school districts, it also fields complaints, like the one submitted by a Hoggard High School student’s mother in 2015 over an alleged Title IX violation, or a 2019 workplace discrimination complaint from a Forest Hill Elementary employee, or a New Hanover High School complaint over unequal facilities at the high school with the highest minority population in 2022.
Data collected by OCR on seclusion and restraint practices led the department to address the possible inappropriate use of seclusion and restraint in 2019. NHCS came under fire after it was revealed the district secluded students — put them in a small room where they weren’t allowed to leave — much more than other districts.
OCR has also been sanctioning New Hanover County Schools for disproportionate suspension tactics since 2018, a punishment that requires the district to set aside 15% of federal IDEA funds to correct the issue. A sanction kicks in when one demographic is suspended at three times the rate of another. NHCS was sanctioned for its suspension of Black students with disabilities, though this was lifted in 2023, and suspension of Black students with “emotional disturbance,” which remains in place.
Republican school board member David Perry named the federal sanction as an issue he had with the U.S. Department of Education, which he would like to see dismantled and its funding turned over to the states. Perry said simply showing numbers of higher suspension rates doesn’t prove wrongdoing.
“We got penalized with some big fine for something where we weren’t necessarily discriminating or having two standards,” Perry said. “It just happens that maybe, sadly, we can’t cure everything as the school board, and we’ve got some families and some neighborhoods that are socially, economically disadvantaged, that are gonna tend to have more trouble with kids and, you know — and that’s just a fact.”
According to a 2023 presentation from Julie Varnam, NHCS assistant superintendent of support services, the disproportionate rates stemmed from “subjective” discipline, for example, classifying one student’s behavior as disrespect but not similar action from another.
We have fairly segregated schools here in North Carolina, more segregated than what they were in 1968.”
Merrick has already been criticized on X for the latter half of his statement, including from New Hanover County Commissioner Dane Scalise and conservative radio host Nick Craig. Craig posted the CNN interview with the line, “What an insane thing to say on national TV,” then shared by Scalise.
In an interview with Port City Daily Tuesday, Merrick said he pulled that statement from a report he read, though didn’t name it specifically.
Though Brown v. Board of Education — Merrick’s grandfather testified in the case — legally ended school segregation in 1954, it took the better part of the next few decades for each school district to comply. In 1968, 77% of Black students and 55% of Latino students attended public schools that were more than half minority. According to study from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, the numbers sank to 63% in the 1980s, but rose to 81% in 2018, largely due to the elimination of mandated desegregation, changing demographics and the lasting effects of unfair housing practices.
Merrick said his GOP counterparts were focusing on the wrong part of his CNN message. Dismantling the U.S. Department of Education could eliminate funding support for minorities, students with disabilities and low-income kids, thus potentially keeping in place the barriers they often face while in the K-12 system.
“If we do not give them the tools they need to learn, those kids won’t be going to college,” Merrick said, noting limiting opportunities, such as college, for kids of lower socioeconomic status furthers the class divide.
Merrick then shifted the spotlight on the county commissioners, questioning if they would be willing to step in should the district lose its federal funding. PCD gave each commissioner the opportunity to comment.
Rob Zapple said he thought the issue was too early to speculate on and didn’t want to send “half-baked” thoughts out into the public.
Scalise replied: “I look forward to hearing from the school board as a body on the system’s funding needs.”
Not just K-12
The Department of Education also provides billions to higher education for research grants and financial aid.
Higher education funding is also under threat. UNCW, and to a lesser extent Cape Fear Community College, could also lose some funding for various grant programs, student scholarships, Pell grants and student loans.
Financial aid for college students provides opportunities to learn and seek higher-paying jobs for those who may not have been able to without federal money, while research grants solve problems on a global scale and assist communities around the university.
Port City Daily asked UNCW how it would be affected by a loss of federal funding. The UNC System has already been impacted by the Trump administration’s freeze on National Institutes of Health funding. UNCW provided the following statement:
“We are aware there are questions about the impact that federal executive actions may have on our operations — particularly around funded research, grants, and educational programs. This continues to be an evolving situation that UNCW is monitoring closely. Given the complexities, we are still assessing any impacts to UNCW research activities. We are working closely with our Office of General Counsel, among other UNCW offices, and also remain in communication with the UNC System Office.”
Repeating history
President Trump’s and Rep. Rouzer’s dislike of the U.S. Department of Education and their reasoning behind calling for its termination is not new; Rouzer himself has introduced his bill five other times in previous years.
In fact, debate over the necessity of the department has been happening since its inception.
President Andrew Johnson signed legislation for a Department of Education in 1867 to collect information and statistics about the nation’s schools and provide advice to schools in the same way the Department of Agriculture helped farmers, according to Donald Warren’s book “United States Department of Education.” However, the department was eventually rolled into the Department of Interior due to concerns it would give the federal government too much power over schools. The department has been reorganized into different agencies over the years.
The department as now known was created by President Jimmy Carter when he split the Department of Health, Education and Welfare into the Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services in 1979.
Carter created the department with the belief education was essential to democracy and the federal government has a role to play in leveling the playing field for the nation’s schoolchildren.
Several members of the Republican Party opposed the move, claiming it was unconstitutional because the Constitution does not explicitly mention education; the 10th amendment states “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
However, the department was deemed constitutional under the Commerce Clause, though the authority to determine curricula, establish educational standards or create schools or colleges lies explicitly with the states.
Calls for its removal started with the next administration. President Ronald Reagan called for eliminating the department in his 1982 State of the Union address; it continued to remain funded, though at lower levels than the previous administration.
President Reagan’s argument was education decisions should be made at the local level, with limited involvement from the federal government. For the most part, this view has lived on in the Republican Party’s platform, though now with President Trump’s added view that the department promotes liberal ideologies and is overrun with “radicals, zealots, and Marxists.”
Still, the presidential administration needs Congressional approval and it is still unclear if the GOP will fall into lockstep with Trump on this issue.
PCD asked Rouzer’s team for an interview on the bill but was not answered by press.
Rouzer argues in the legislative text that the department has “fostered overregulation, standardization, bureaucratization, and litigation in United States education” and “weakened the ability of parents to make essential decisions about their children’s education.” Rouzer does not give specific examples.
Proponents of cutting the department have criticized some guardrails put in place by the federal government. Center for Education Reform Jeanne Allen argues in Forbes that the governments’ IDEA and child nutrition programs don’t provide resources to charter and private schools, impeding on parental school choice, the very thing some states are working to increase.
Many of those in favor, including Rouzer, also point to the department and its 4,400 employees as government bloat.
“The Department of Education expends large amounts of money on its own maintenance and overhead,” Rouzer’s bill states. “While the average national salary for public school teachers is $61,730 the average salary for a Department of Education employee is $112,724.” The bill doesn’t analyze the additional positions that may be needed in state governments to oversee the additional funding.
Rouzer also points to “poor results in mathematics, science, and reading” since the department’s founding, another common refrain.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress, which tracks academic performance of 9-,13- and 17-year-olds. It found that while reading and math scores have dropped several points since 2020 (when the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted schools across the nation), reading is up seven points since 1971 and math is up 15 points since 1973.
Rouzer’s bill has been referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce, though has seen no action since Jan. 13.
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