President Trump signs an executive order calling for the elimination of the U.S. Education Department

President Donald Trump signed an order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the Department of Education. The move sparked fears among some Long Islanders of funding cuts and fewer protections for the most vulnerable students, while others said the order aimed at getting rid of the cabinet-level agency will improve the educational system by eliminating bureaucracy.

Speaking at a signing ceremony in the White House East Room, Trump declared, "my administration will take all lawful steps to shut down" the Department of Education.

"We're going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible. It's doing us no good," Trump said, speaking from a stage where he was joined by children sitting behind school desks.

Trump promised that core responsibilities of the agency including, Title I funding to low-income schools and enforcing laws to provide equitable education for students with disabilities, would be "fully preserved," without providing details.

Congressional wall

Completely dismantling the department is most likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created it in 1979. Republicans said they will introduce a bill to achieve that.

Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) each denounced Trump’s move, arguing it would add strain on state and local school systems.

"Across the country property taxes will go up, while the quality of many schools will go down," Schumer, the senate minority leader, said in a statement. "Presidents cannot make departments and they cannot eliminate them either, only Congress can do that. The courts must act to uphold the rule of law and stop Donald Trump’s tyrannical power grab."

Dismantling the agency "will deprive children with disabilities of the specialized education to which they have a right under federal law," and would hurt college students who rely on federal grant programs, Gillibrand said.

"Make no mistake — individual states simply do not have the funding, personnel or expertise to provide this same level of support to millions of students," Gillibrand said. "President Trump is prioritizing minimal cost savings from cutting a small federal department at the expense of the literacy and math skills that will allow our kids to secure high-quality, good-paying jobs in the future."

The department sends billions of dollars a year to schools and oversees $1.6 trillion in federal student loans.

States and districts already control local schools, including curriculum, but some conservatives have pushed to cut strings attached to federal money and provide it to states as “block grants” to be used at their discretion. Block granting has raised questions about vital funding sources including Title I, the largest source of federal money to America’s K-12 schools. Families of children with disabilities have despaired over what could come of the federal department's work protecting their rights.

Speaking to CNN Thursday evening, Gov. Kathy Hochul noted that New York State receives $6 billion annually in federal education funding, including Pell Grant financial aid for college students and money for student breakfast and lunches.

Without the funding, Hochul said, children “are going to go hungry.”

More local control

In previous Oval Office appearances, Trump has pointed to Long Island as a model for local control of schools. On Thursday he again gave a nod to Nassau and Suffolk counties, making the case that states should have more control over their education systems.

"For instance, New York, you’ll have a Manhattan, you'll have a Suffolk County, you’ll have a Nassau County, and you'll have Westchester County. You'll do four or five or six of them. You have upstate New York, and those counties, I think are going to do very well, and I think ultimately Manhattan should do very well," Trump said.

As the American Federation of Teachers, one of the nation’s largest teachers unions, promised to fight Trump’s order in court, he vowed to "take care" of educators.

"Teachers, to me, are among the most important people in this country," Trump said. "I believe the states will take actually better care of them."

The Trump administration is already in the process of cutting the agency's workforce in half, and there have been deep cuts to the Office for Civil Rights and the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on the nation’s academic progress.

"This is a dark day for the millions of American children who depend on federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor and rural communities with parents who voted for Trump," NAACP President Derrick Johnson said.

On Long Island and elsewhere, educators, students and parents said Thursday they expect Trump's order to mean massive changes to the nation’s education system.

Barbara Abboud, chairwoman of the Nassau County chapter of Moms for Liberty, a conservative parents’ rights group, said dismantling the Department of Education would free up funds for education services, "removing that layer of bureaucracy so local communities can make decisions that are best for their students and their children."

Others voiced concerns that the order, along with massive layoffs and the closing of numerous civil rights offices, including in New York, could harm students with disabilities and those facing discrimination. Some worried the federal government could cut funding for K-12 schools and especially colleges, where many students rely on federal grants, loans and other programs.

'Extremely important role'

The Department of Education provides only a small portion of K-12 school funding in New York but it "plays an extremely important role" in financial aid, especially for low-income students at community colleges, said John Kaehny, executive director of the watchdog group Reinvent Albany. Those students "are literally working their way through school," he said. The colleges, he said, are "really, really important for workforce development, job training and employment."

At Suffolk County Community College, administrators "have not been notified of any direct impact on the college," Edward Bonahue, the college’s president, said in a statement. But, he said, "a sudden loss of federal support would likely create unnecessary confusion and worry" for students who depend on financial aid. The college has a student population of 21,000 and partners with Rockville Centre-based Catholic Health to offer a health care worker training program.

Its federal funding includes roughly $467,000 in work-study jobs; $348,500 in grants for students who are first-generation college students, those with disabilities and those with lower incomes; and $144,000 in child care funds to help low-income parents stay in school.

Hannah Alfasso, a senior at Hofstra University in Hempstead, leads a disability rights group on campus and plans to work as an advocate for people with disabilities after she graduates.

Alfasso said she has borrowed more than $150,000 and has been hoping some of her debt would be forgiven based on her income and public-service career. Without debt forgiveness, she said, it could take 15 years or more to pay back her loans. "It’s just going to be a deeper hole to get out of," she said.

The 21-year-old, who has a connective tissue disorder, said that while she will be graduating in May, she worries about other students with disabilities.

"It’s sort of terrifying," she said of the potential changes in funding and other help for those with disabilities. "You don't know if one day you're going to go in and your program that helps you get an education is gone."

With Alfonso A. Castillo and AP