7/16/2025

IRONWOOD - On Monday, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to proceed with restructuring the Department of Education.  The court’s ruling puts a temporary hold on an earlier ruling by a Massachusetts judge. That ruling would have required the Department of Education to rehire nearly 1,400 fired employees.  The Department of Education oversees financial aid and disseminates research on the best practices in education. So far, Upper Peninsula community colleges are seeing little impact from the Department of Education’s staff reduction.  Gogebic Community College President Chris Patritto says there’s a lot of uncertainty. He says because community colleges have limited assets, they do worry some.  Patritto says despite funding their top priority is their students.  Exactly how these changes in the Department of Education will affect our nation’s schools remains to be seen.