The Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building pictured on Nov. 25, 2024. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Education exhausted millions in taxpayer dollars trying to eliminate a chunk of its Office for Civil Rights, a government watchdog found in a report released Monday.  

The department spent between roughly $28.5 million and $38 million on the salaries and benefits of the hundreds of Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, employees who were not working between March and December 2025, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

OCR employees — tasked with investigating civil rights complaints from students and families — were targeted in March as part of a larger Reduction in Force, or RIF, effort at the department and placed on paid administrative leave while legal challenges against President Donald Trump’s administration unfolded.

Amid a mounting backlog of discrimination complaints, the department said in December it would be bringing back the affected employees. The agency moved to rescind the RIFs against the OCR employees in early January while legal challenges proceeded.   

Complaints resolved

The department resolved more than 7,000 of the over 9,000 discrimination complaints it received between March and September, GAO, an independent, nonpartisan body that reports to Congress, said.

However, roughly 90% of the resolved complaints were due to the department dismissing the complaint, the watchdog found. The dismissal rate ranged from 49% to 81% during academic years in the 2010s, GAO found in a 2021 report.

The department “has not made complete information publicly available about potential costs and has not made any information available about potential savings associated with its OCR RIF actions,” GAO said, calling on the agency to provide those estimates and document its analysis. 

Trump has taken significant steps to try to dismantle the 46-year-old department as part of his quest to move education “back to the states.”

In response to a draft of the report, Kimberly Richey, the assistant secretary for OCR, said the matter is rendered “moot” because the agency brought OCR employees back to work in December and rescinded the RIFs. 

“We do not concur with the recommendation,” Richey wrote. 

‘Unacceptable’

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who requested the GAO report, blasted the millions of dollars the department spent as “unacceptable” in a Monday statement. 

“Every child in America should be able to get a good education no matter where they live, what their religious beliefs are or whether or not they have a disability,” said the Vermont independent, who serves as ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. 

“Instead, the Trump administration fired half of the Education Department employees working to protect the civil rights of students and wasted as much as $38 million in taxpayer dollars by preventing investigators from doing their jobs,” he added. 

Rachel Gittleman, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents Education Department workers, said that “instead of following court orders and federal law, the Trump Administration chose to keep these civil rights professionals on paid administrative leave rather than letting them do their jobs, while students, families, and schools paid the price.” 

Gittleman added that Education Secretary Linda McMahon “has made clear that she would rather play politics than uphold her responsibility to protect students’ rights,” and “her actions have undermined the Department’s mission, harmed families, and subjected dedicated federal employees to needless uncertainty, abuse, and harassment.” 

The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. 

Louisiana Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy talks with reporters in the Dirksen Senate office building on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — The fierce debate surrounding school choice initiatives took center stage Wednesday during a hearing in a U.S. Senate panel. 

President Donald Trump’s administration and congressional Republicans have made school choice a central point of their education agenda, including a sweeping national school voucher program baked into the GOP’s mega tax and spending cut bill Trump signed into law in July. 

The hearing came in the middle of National School Choice Week, which the U.S. Department of Education dubbed a “time to highlight the many different types of education across the United States and to empower families to choose the best learning option for their child’s success.” 

The umbrella term “school choice” centers on alternative programs to one’s assigned public school. Opponents argue these efforts drain critical funds and resources from school districts, though advocates say the initiatives are necessary for parents dissatisfied with their local public schools.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which held the hearing, described school choice as “the avenue for expressing the innovation that we need to meet a student’s need.” 

“Traditional schools work for many students — what we’re asking, though, is to give the parent the choice if it does not,” the Louisiana Republican added.

Many models for school choice

Proponents in Ohio and Florida touted the work of their respective organizations and the broader school choice efforts in their states. 

Cris Gulacy-Worrel serves as vice president of Oakmont Education, an operator of dropout recovery charter schools serving more than 5,500 students in Ohio, Iowa and Michigan. 

Gulacy-Worrel said last year, Oakmont Education “graduated 1,309 students, and we’ve placed over 4,500 young people directly into the workforce over the last three years alone.”

“For far too long, we’ve been told school choice is about (Education Savings Accounts) or public charter schools — it’s not,” she said. “What we’re really talking about is educational plurality, a system with room for many models and many pathways to success.”

John Kirtley is chairman of Step Up For Students, a nonprofit scholarship funding organization that distributes scholarships for children in Florida. 

Kirtley said his state “has been moving towards a new definition of public education: Raise taxpayer dollars to educate children, but then empower families to direct those dollars to different providers and even different delivery methods that best suit their individual children’s learning needs.” 

More than half of all K-12 students in the Sunshine State participate in a school choice program rather than attending their local public school. 

Bernie Sanders sees two-tier system created

Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the panel’s ranking member, said that while there are a “number of things we can and should be doing to strengthen and improve education” in the country, “we should not be creating a two-tier education system in America — private schools for the wealthy and well-connected and severely under-funded and under-resourced public schools for low-income, disabled and working-class kids.” 

The Vermont independent said that “unfortunately, that is precisely what the Trump administration and my Republican colleagues in Congress are doing,” pointing to the national school voucher program that’s now law. 

Sanders’ staff released a committee report Wednesday analyzing the state laws of 21 states with school voucher programs that scholarship granting organizations administer, in an effort to understand the forthcoming federal school voucher program’s potential effects.

Among the findings, the report concluded that “nearly half of analyzed private schools (48%) explicitly state that they choose not to provide some or all students with disabilities with the services, protections, and rights provided to those students in public schools under federal law.” 

Arizona voucher program

Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association, testified about the negative repercussions of private school vouchers in the Grand Canyon state. 

In 2022, Arizona became the first state in the country to enact a universal school voucher program. 

Garcia described her state’s voucher program as a “bloated mess costing three times more than it was projected” and said vouchers “often only offer the illusion of choice.” 

“Every child deserves a great public school in Arizona,” she added. “Our experiences show that vouchers are not the way to achieve that goal.” 

National school voucher program 

The permanent national school voucher program, starting in 2027, allocates up to $1,700 in federal tax credits for individuals who donate to organizations that provide private and religious school scholarships. 

The program reflects a sweeping bill that Cassidy and GOP Reps. Adrian Smith of Nebraska and Burgess Owens of Utah had reintroduced in their respective chambers in 2025.

Cassidy defended the program during the hearing, saying: “We’re not trying to supplant funding for public education — we’re trying to supplement funding for education.” 

As of Tuesday, nearly half of all states have opted in to the initiative, per the Education Department. 

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The amount some pay for Affordable Care Act health insurance will double when enhanced subsidies expire, but there isn’t evidence the number is 20 million.

KFF, a health policy nonprofit, estimates monthly payments for Obamacare recipients will increase, on average, $1,016 – more than doubling, from $888 in 2025 to $1,904 in 2026.

That counts increases to premiums and lost subsidies.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, citing KFF, made the 20 million claim. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said Sanders was wrong.

KFF doesn’t say how many of the 24 million Obamacare enrollees will see premiums double.

But 2 to 3 million people on the high end of income eligibility would lose all enhanced subsidies. About half could see premium payments double or triple. 

Enhanced subsidies, created in 2021, expire Dec. 31. Some Obamacare enrollees will receive lower enhanced subsidies or none. Standard subsidies remain.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

• KFF: ACA Marketplace Premium Payments Would More than Double on Average Next Year if Enhanced Premium Tax Credits Expire
• U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders: Email
• KFF: Email
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: Health Insurance Exchanges 2025 Open Enrollment Report
• The Journalist's Resource: The battle over Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies: What to know as open enrollment looms
• NBC News: What the government shutdown's end means for Obamacare subsidies
• PolitiFact: Fact-checking Democrats’ talking points about Affordable Care Act subsidies

Will 2026 Obamacare premiums double for 20 million Americans? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.