The Trump administration has officially begun a full-scale drawdown of the Department of Education (DOE), fulfilling a key promise the president repeatedly made on the campaign trail last year.
Trump explained in an executive order last week that Secretary of Education Linda McMahon will “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the states and local communities.” The administration will shift the responsibility of federal student loans to the Small Business Administration and health programs for students to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Since its establishment in 1980, DOE’s budget has exploded from $56.9 billion (adjusted for inflation) to $268.3 billion in 2024. Congress also allocated hundreds of billions of dollars to the agency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these ever-increasing expenditures, student outcomes have continued to worsen, with American kids falling further behind their international peers.
DOE has also attracted controversy over its efforts to use taxpayer dollars to advance left-wing political causes. In February, for instance, the department said that it had discovered $600 million in grants “to institutions and nonprofits that were using taxpayer funds to train teachers and education agencies on divisive ideologies” like Critical Race Theory and radical gender theory.
The Biden Department of Education also rewrote Title IX rules to expand the definition of “sex” to include “gender identity,” effectively forcing every federally-funded school to embrace transgender ideology – including allowing males in female restrooms and locker rooms.
“Taxpayers will no longer be burdened with tens of billions of dollars wasted on progressive social experiments and obsolete programs,” a White House fact sheet stated.
“Closing the Department of Education would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them,” Trump’s executive order reads. “Today, American reading and math scores are near historical lows. This year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that 70 percent of 8th graders were below proficient in reading, and 72 percent were below proficient in math.”
McMahon said on Fox News after the signing that officially eliminating DOE would require 60 votes in the Senate, but added that she will work with Congress to ensure legislation is passed. Regardless, the administration believes it has the legal authority to essentially shut down all of the department’s functions without congressional approval.
“The president signed an executive order to shut down the Department of Education and have me be the last secretary of the Department of Education,” McMahon said in a video published Monday by the White House. “The president made it very clear that Pell Grants, funding for students with special needs, all those will continue.”
The Trump administration announced earlier this month that half of DOE’s staff would be placed on administrative leave. This move reduced the agency’s staff from more than 4,100 to approximately 2,200.
Elected Democrats and teachers unions have indicated that they plan to challenge the Trump administration’s actions in court. The outcome of the coming legal battles could go a long way toward determining how the courts view the extent of the president’s executive power.
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
And of course the Progressives make a court case out of it. While the Dept of Education was nothing more than a front to mutilate our children and teach CRT and communism in schools. In 45 years the budget creep went from 57 billion to 268 billion. While the education our children received went down by 70%. Only 30% of our children can read. If a person can’t read he can’t write or do math, learn history or civics or a foreign language. That is why college age students can’t answer the question: “Who was our first President”. Heck they don’t know who our president is now. The education dept served no purpose other than supporting the union for their vote for the democrats. And fight against republicans. That is what they are fighting for to keep that money coming in. They say they always have the teachers and students best interest at heart. Only what they think is best. And trans and CRT and DEI is what the teachers Union thinks is best. It always is about money and power. This lawsuit has nothing to do with educating our children. It is a powerplay by the Union against president Trump. Like everything is every day in America.
This agency should never have existed in the first place. We are now going to see some real differences in the quality of education between red and blue states. Blue states will continue to quaruple down on stupid. Oregon has already lowered standards for so-called minorities. My only fear is that republicans who are supposed to be running the redstates can sometimes be rather cowardly. It’s great to see the Department of Education go, but i’m not certain that it will result in an immediate improvement in our nations schools.
The Department of Education is an oxymoron, just like Democrat intelligence
Send it back to the states!!!
Ronald Reagan: ‘The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’
I thought this totally unnecessary at the time and still do. I feel the same about the Department of Homeland Security. Why couldn’t this be handled by DOD? Just another excuse to expand the Federal Government.
Time to stop taxing people without children to pay for other people’s brats. People want kids? LET THEM PAY FOR THEIR OWN DAMN BRATS OUT OF THEIR OWN DAMN POCKETS. Being a parent does not = entitlement to other people’s hard earned money.
Democrats never do anything constructive. Everything they touch, they destroy. Such is the case with EVERY agency within the US government as well as just about everything in the US (K-12 & college education, sports, social programs, the family, foreign aid, medicine, science, etc,).
Need to do the 3_R’s_reading ‘riting and ‘rithmetic. And use the old teaching methods of the 50’s and 60’s–phonics for reading. Students back then could almost universally read well and do math—could MAKE CHANGE in money. Just because something is new doesn’t make it better.
Good riddance to the DOE.
WOW! About time something was done on all this wasted money that doesn’t amount to anything for our children. They don’t even care. It is all about money in their pocket.
I know this example is going to sound really gross….but putting the squeeze on the DOE…is that not like popping a zit…..you get rid of the icky and then treat the spot so it can heal. Now after you squeeze the DOE of all the waste, abuse, fraud and corruption, maybe, you won’t have to ask congress to disband it, just make it a new thing, a useful thing, a worthy thing, and give the work to the states where it should have remained. Putting the DOE in place was a scam to begin with as liberals saw a chance to make moves against us with propaganda of our children and robbery of the treasury. So POP!
Educational system that we have right now brought down the whole nation, in order to get out of the hole, that system has to go , there is no other way out.
Sadly, some radical leftist, Soros-paid judge will save the DOE with some idiotic ruling.
Wisdom give to individual is good idea for each has its own needs depend area where the children needs are different!
Sorry last post each state has its own needs, base on culture and needs of each students
80%students in 8th grade can’t read and 72%students can’t do math. Hmm. But they know that it’s OK to change their gender!! This is what out teacher unions and Dems are pushing. And they wonder why they’re older they can’t get a good job other flipping burgers at McDonald’s. Hell they probably can’t read a standard job application on.line. is this really what our teacher unions want? It’s because of the dog crap these teachers are teaching. Reading, writing and arithmetic has been out the window for a long time and it’s no wonder China is kicking our ass!!
Yeah. Let the lawsuits and liberal f’ing judges begin. So disgusting.
As a retired teacher in NY and also in Texas, I am in full support of changing Education to the states. I had a friend who grew up in Germany during WW II. Because Hitler took over education, her family taught their children at home. I saw pictures of German children marching like the German soldiers with their “goose-step” Education of children is the right and duty of parents. State support and help in that duty is a better way for all concerned.
Long overdue! Gross incompetence and mismanagement of taxpayer money Poor results for our investment. Who in Congress got the kickbacks? Track them down and put them in prison.
Appears that this will only save money & do nothing to further public school education in USA. Does this mean states will have fifty different education agendas?
Dept Ed Hq reuses:
Voc/Tech Ed
Teacher training
K-12 Center
Fine Arts
STEM Center
Museum
Archieve
Housing
ALL NON GOVT run but local for VA MD PA residents