Last week, Attorney General Aaron Ford alongside State Senator Angie Taylor and education leaders slammed Joe Lombardo for coming out in full support of Donald Trump signing an executive order to eliminate the Department of Education, helping pave the way for more tax cuts for billionaires. Ford said that by giving Trump his stamp of approval to cut support for homeless children, rural and special education programs, and aid to help low-income students seek higher education, “Joe Lombardo just sold out Nevada’s kids and their futures. Our governor put Donald Trump over Nevada.”
Nevadans know Lombardo won’t stand up for the hundreds of thousands of students in school here, but instead will continue to prioritize Republican efforts to deliver more tax handouts to billionaires like Elon Musk. The Lombardo-Trump plan to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education would threaten nearly $1 billion per year in funding for Nevada schools and students. If Lombardo and Trump get their way, funding for Pell Grants, community colleges, special education, career and technical education, and other essential services for Nevada students will be on the chopping block. Over the last five years, Nevada students and schools have been supported by the U.S. Department of Education with a total of nearly $6 billion in critical funding.
Read more below:
Las Vegas Sun: Nevada AG blasts governor over support for dismantling Education Department
- Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat running for governor in 2026, isn’t holding back when discussing Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s support for effectively ending the U.S. Department of Education.
- “The fact is Joe Lombardo just sold out Nevada’s kids and their futures. Our governor put Donald Trump over Nevada,” said Ford, a former public-school teacher. “It’s fewer teachers, it’s bigger class sizes and it’s the dismantling of programs for kids with special needs.”
- Trump on Thursday directed the Department of Education to shut down everything but “core necessities.”
- The president is transferring the department’s student loan programs to the Small Business Administration, while the Department of Health and Human Services will be “handling special needs and all of the nutrition programs,” he said.
- Ford said he doesn’t believe Trump when he says those programs will be protected by moving them. Some 60,000 students in Nevada with disabilities will have their funding “drastically cut,” he said.
- “Pell grants for 41,000 students will be put on the chopping block. We are talking about thousands of kids who will no longer be able to pay for college that are already attending thanks to Joe Lombardo,” Ford said.
- Lombardo wrote Thursday for the right-wing news outlet Breitbart that Trump “has boldly reimagined what education can — and should — look like in our country.”
Key points:
- On Friday Nevada Attorney General, Aaron Ford held a press conference calling out Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo for his support of President Donald Trump’s executive order to start the elimination of the Department of Education.
- The President still needs congressional approval before he can completely dissolve the agency.
- Governor Lombardo praised the President’s order, saying he also believes education should be controlled by the states.
- AG Ford thinks it will be damaging for Nevada students and schools.
- “The fact is Joe Lombardo just sold out Nevada’s kids and their futures,” the Attorney General said.
- “Let’s be clear, eliminating the Department of Education isn’t about helping kids, it’s about abandoning them,” said Brian Wallace, Vice President of the Nevada State Education Association.
- State leaders against the change say Nevada heavily relies on funding from the federal level.
- “Over the last five years Nevada students and schools have been supported by the Department of Education, have been supported by the tune of nearly six billion dollars in critical, critical funding,” said Angie Taylor, (D) Nevada State Senator.
- Ford says this could impact the number of teachers, increase class sizes and special need programs.
- “We’re already dealing with some of the worst public school funding in the country,” the Attorney General said. “Nevada ranks towards the last in per pupil spending.”
Nevada Current: AG Ford: Don’t believe Trump when he says federal education funding won’t be cut
Key points:
- Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford on Friday condemned the Trump administration’s plan to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, saying he doesn’t believe public promises that federal funding for widely used education programs won’t be cut as a result.
- Trump on Thursday issued an executive order calling on the dismantling and closure of the Education Department. The announcement, long expected, has ramped up uncertainty about the future of educational programs like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which is supposed to ensure that students with disabilities receive a free and appropriate public education, and Title-1, which provides additional funding for schools in low-income neighborhoods.
- Nevada over the past 5 years has received $6 billion from the federal government for education programs, according to Ford.
- U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon on Thursday released a statement saying that “closing the Department does not mean cutting off funds from those who depend on them” and said the administration “will continue to support K-12 students, students with special needs, college student borrowers, and others who rely on essential programs.” Trump has similarly said these popular programs will be “preserved in full.”
- “I don’t believe him,” Ford said Friday at a press conference in Carson City. “I have been engaging in litigation since he was inaugurated. Six hours after he was inaugurated he violated the Constitution and we sued. He has people running amok in our government.”
- It is Congress, not the president, that holds the authority to completely shut down a federal department. But Trump and McMahon have made it clear their goal is shutting the department down. The administration has already instituted mass layoffs, ended existing contracts, and made other significant reductions to the department.
- “This is not a harmless restructuring,” said Ford.
- Ford and other Democratic attorneys general have filed multiple lawsuits against the Trump administration, including one earlier this month over the halving of the Education Department’s workforce. Ford on Friday vowed to continue filing such lawsuits as needed.
- North Valleys High School Principal Tomas Macaluso, who spoke before Ford at the press conference, pointed out that Trump is gutting staff at numerous departments and it will likely be difficult for them to adequately absorb additional programs and duties.
- Democratic Assemblymember Angie Taylor, a career educator who also spoke at the event, made a more fundamental argument about the potential move of education programs into other federal departments: “They belong in the Education Department.”
- “Lombardo just sold out Nevada’s kids and their futures,” said Ford, adding that the governor will have to answer to Nevadans if the federal cuts result in fewer teachers, bigger class sizes, and the dismantling of programs with special needs.
- Ford continued, “He didn’t have to do this. Nobody forced him to do this. He chose to do it. Joe Lombardo wants to kiss up to Donald Trump? Fine, but he doesn’t get to do it at the expense of Nevada students.”
- Lombardo on Thursday threw his full support behind Trump, writing in an op-ed on the right-wing platform Breitbart that the president is “returning education back to state control.”
- Ford noted that Lombardo’s piece ran immediately after Trump’s announcement and had to have been prewritten.
- “He didn’t hesitate,” added Ford. “He prepared himself to abandon children.”
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