However, success is far from guaranteed…
President Donald Trump is actively pursuing plans to significantly downsize or potentially eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. He has expressed a desire to close the department through executive action, acknowledging that such a move would require collaboration with Congress and teachers’ unions.
According to reports, the White House is preparing an executive order instructing the secretary of education to initiate the process of dismantling the department. This order will commence a 90-day review period and seek input from Congress.
Trump has nominated Linda McMahon, former administrator of the Small Business Administration, as the new secretary of education. Her main goal is to work towards dissolving the department. “I want her to put herself out of a job,” Trump told reporters while sitting confidently at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office.
Q: "Why nominate Linda McMahon to be the Education Department Secretary if you're going to get rid of the Education Department?"
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 4, 2025
President Donald Trump: "I told Linda, 'Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job.' I want her to put herself out of a job." pic.twitter.com/PreB1Zx4p3
As the New York Post reports:
Conservatives have long sought to get rid of the Education Department, which was created in 1979 under late former President Jimmy Carter. Former President Ronald Reagan had also backed eliminating the department.
The Department of Education had $241.66 billion in budgetary resources last fiscal year, according to data from USASpending.gov.
The bulk of those budgetary resources — about $180 billion — went to the Office of Federal Student Aid, which deals with student loans.
Trump said he would prefer to return power from the department back to the states, which he argued are better suited to manage their own education systems.
“I think that if you moved our schools into some of these states that are really well-run states, they would be as good as Denmark and Norway and Sweden, Trump said, before conceding that “you’d have the laggards, the same laggards that are laggards with everything else, including crime.”
In his first weeks in office, Trump has prioritized streamlining the federal bureaucracy to eliminate waste, fraud and malfeasance. However, addressing the issues at the Department of Education may be his greatest challenge yet.
Among other obstacles, the Department of Education’s funding and many of its programs are mandated by federal law, meaning that significant changes would require legislative action. Historically, attempts to reduce the department’s budget have faced opposition from Congress, which has often opted to increase funding instead.
Polls also indicate that a majority of Americans, including many Republicans, currently oppose the elimination of the Department of Education.
As the administration advances its plans, the debate over the role of the federal government in education is expected to intensify, with contentious discussions and political maneuvering anticipated in both political and public spheres.
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“ acknowledging that such a move would require collaboration with Congress and teachers’ unions.”
Why would teacher’s unions have any say in this? I’d like to hear more about that.
Since all the power of government is sourced or provided from and by the Constitution, it must first be provided by the US Constitution, for the Federal Gov to be involved, concerned or to regulate the subject of education in any way shape or form. Since there is no specific permission or power, provided over education, absent a Constitutional amendment any such actions by the federal gov are unconstitutional.
This article completely left out fact that the Federal Government has no reason to have an Education Department Education is not mentioned in the US Constitution, therefore education belongs to the STATES.
The Department of Energy should be next on the chopping block. These two institutions are nothing, but money pits.
Duplicate wasteful spending too much bureaucracy. The Constitution wanted States to have local control especially over Education. The Teachers Union have ruined the Education System. Get back to basics reading, writing, arithmetic, science, and US History. No need for FBI at school board meetings what a joke. Thank God for a President who actually reduces government. Take your WOKE ideas and DEI to the local citizens lets hear what they want and think of your ridiculous ideas about education. Get men out of women’s sports. Transgenders start your own league to compete in and quit violating Title 9 for women and girls.
For far too long they have not focused on real teachers. It’s about time.
So why do we need a board of education on the national level other than to have more federal control over states and to self-boat itself to spend more money? Especially in the light that our national education level as a whole has done nothing but go downhill since its inception. Accelerated by the idiotic “No Child Left Behind” initiative started by Obama which has also has abysmal effects on our children’s education!