The Trump administration has taken unprecedented steps to unwind the U.S. Department of Education, in line with a long-standing conservative goal and President Trump’s campaign promises.
On Jan. 14, we’ll explore the department’s past, present, and future with Lindsey Burke, deputy chief of staff for policy and programs at the Education Department. Chalkbeat editors Matt Barnum and Erica Meltzer will discuss with Burke why the administration wants to eliminate the agency, how officials are already working to do so, and what all this means for students, educators, and parents.
RSVP to join this important conversation. There will be time for audience-submitted questions. Please share yours upon registering.
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Lindsey Burke is the U.S. Department of Education’s deputy chief of staff for policy and programs. She spent the last 17 years at the Heritage Foundation, where she was most recently Director of the Center for Education Policy and the Mark A. Kolokotrones Fellow in Education. In that capacity, she oversaw Heritage’s preschool, K-12, and higher education policy and research. Burke’s scholarly research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Social Science Quarterly and Educational Research and Evaluation, and she has published hundreds of policy reports on a range of education issues and testified before Congress on numerous occasions. In 2021, Burke was tapped to join Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin’s transition steering committee and was appointed to serve on the Youngkin landing team for education. She was also appointed by Governor Youngkin to serve on the Board of Visitors for George Mason University.
Erica Meltzer is the national editor at Chalkbeat, where she covers education policy and politics. She was a founding editor of the local news site Denverite and served as Chalkbeat’s Colorado bureau chief for six years.
Matt Barnum is editor and columnist for Chalkbeat Ideas, a section devoted to explaining and examining the ideas and debates shaping American schools. Before launching this section, he covered K-12 education for the Wall Street Journal.
