Taylor Odle, who studies education policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said a lot of uncertainty remains on how closing or gutting the U.S. Department of Education would specifically affect students and schools. But the effects would be widespread.
“I think it would be very hard to say that there’s going to be some area of Wisconsin that isn’t impacted by these changes,” said Odle, who clarified he wasn’t speaking on behalf of UW-Madison. Wisconsin and other states are “not well-equipped to take over (the agency’s) functions,” he added.