President Trump is moving swiftly to deliver on a major campaign promise: shutting down the Department of Education. He believes the federal government has failed America’s students and that returning control to the states is the solution.
During his presidential campaign, President Trump frequently pointed to education rankings as evidence for eliminating the federal Department of Education. He argued that U.S. schools perform the worst among developed nations—“ranked 40 out of 40” in educational outcomes—while the country spends more per student than any other. At a September campaign rally, Trump vowed: “We will drain the government education swamp and stop the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s youth.”
According to CNN, President Trump is expected to take the first steps this week toward dismantling the Department of Education. White House officials have drafted an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin the process. The order instructs McMahon to "take all necessary steps" to shut down the Department while following the law.
President Trump also plans to push Congress to pass legislation that will officially eliminate the Department.
A Failed Experiment In Centralized Control
Established in 1979 under President Carter, the DOE was supposed to improve education through federal oversight. Decades later, the DOE has ballooned to 4,250 employees, overseeing $251 billion in annual spending—yet academic standards have only declined.
Student performance has nosedived, betraying Carter’s goal. President Trump argues the DOE is to blame, having shifted its focus from academics to woke agendas like gender ideology, race politics, and DEI.
The results speak for themselves. Test scores have plummeted—2024 NAEP data shows math and reading scores at their lowest in decades.
The chart below shows how Grade 8 students perform in reading and math in 2024, based on data from The Nation’s Report Card. Only 4% of students have mastered advanced reading skills, while over 70% struggle to evaluate an author’s use of evidence. In math, just 38% of students can apply the Pythagorean Theorem, a fundamental concept.
The federal government provides 13.6% of funding for public K-12 education. Despite spending $1 trillion since 1979, the DOE has failed to improve student outcomes.
Linda McMahon, Trump’s new Education Secretary, sent a message to employees titled “Our Department’s Final Mission,” signaling the agency’s imminent closure.
The U.S. Constitution does not mention education, leaving it to states and local governments. For nearly 200 years, education was a state and local responsibility. Yet today, Washington dictates school policy through bureaucratic mandates.
DOE’s Woke Priorities Over Student Success
The DOE has abandoned academic standards in favor of ideological programs like DEI, CRT, and gender policies—pursuing activism over education. Federal grants push schools to adopt these agendas, diverting focus from core academics. The DOE’s Office for Civil Rights even pressured schools to allow biological males in girls’ sports, overriding local policies and parental concerns.
The question is simple: Is the Department of Education about teaching kids—or pushing a political agenda?
Congressional approval is required to entirely abolish the DOE, and past attempts to eliminate it have failed. Trump tried to dismantle it in his first term but faced resistance. However, now he’s taking another shot.
Democrats strongly oppose the move. With only 53 Senate votes, Trump lacks the supermajority needed to abolish the DOE outright. But through executive orders and strategic funding cuts, he can still strip the department of its power.
The most likely course? Transferring DOE’s responsibilities to other departments, like Treasury and Health and Human Services, until it becomes redundant. He will likely weaken the DOE through executive actions while pushing Congress to finish the job. With McMahon leading the charge, Trump’s plan to dismantle the DOE is no longer just campaign rhetoric—it’s already in motion. The battle for America’s schools has begun.
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10. The Case Against European Rearmament—Yanis Varoufakis, Project Syndicate
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24. Congress Should Repeal The FACE Act—Thomas Jipping & Seth Lucas, The Daily Signal
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General Affairs
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