Why did Trump dismantle the US Department of Education?
In one of the latest moves, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to abolish the Department of Education. Emphasizing that this policy will make education much, much better, the US President stated at the signing ceremony that he is confident that US states will do better in the field of education after eliminating the Department of Education. There are a few important points about the dimensions of this issue.
Trump and the Dissolution of the Department of Education
According to 2022 statistics, more than 49.6 million students were enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools in the United States, which includes about one-seventh of the country’s total population. The central motto of the US Department of Education is to strengthen educational excellence and ensure equal access to educational opportunities for all. The Department of Education is one of the departments of the US government that is responsible for overseeing education in this country. In October 1979, then US President Jimmy Carter signed the law organizing this department. According to this law, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was divided into two departments: the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. As a result, the Department of Education officially began operating in May 1980.
Since its inception, the Department of Education has faced repeated calls for its abolition from Republicans, and they are now being pursued more vigorously. The abolition is also part of Project 2025, a policy plan by the Heritage Foundation to guide Trump’s second term. The first sentence of Project 2025’s education section states that federal education policy should be curtailed and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated. Accordingly, over the past two months, the White House has taken steps to increase the vulnerability of public schools. Some of these measures include defunding schools, launching national school voucher programs, providing more funding and less oversight for private operators, and giving a green light to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on public schools. However, doing so would require a congressional resolution and support from both Democrats and Republicans. In 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives considered and rejected an amendment to a bill that would have sought to eliminate the department. Also, since many of Trump’s moves to reshape the federal government have been blocked in court, the likelihood that judges will rule that Trump has overstepped his authority and that he could face lawsuits is very high.
Why Trump is taking action and the reactions to it
In his executive order signing speech, Trump called the Department of Education costly and inefficient. Trump announced that he wants to eliminate the department because student scores on standardized tests have consistently declined and that he wants to shift control of the public education system from the federal government to state and local governments. This is because the United States ranked eighth out of 41 countries in terms of education and 19th in terms of student skills, according to the Better Life Index published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2020. However, a majority of the American public opposes Trump’s move. According to a 2024 poll by All4Ed, 58 percent of respondents across party lines opposed eliminating the Department of Education.
Supporters of the measure are mostly Republicans and right-wingers. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation and a leading advocate for the abolition, said that “for decades, billions of taxpayer dollars have been poured into a failing system that prioritizes leftist indoctrination over academic excellence, while student achievement stagnates and America falls further behind.” Opponents say eliminating the department will leave children in a fundamentally unequal education system. Derrick Johnson, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said “this is a dark day for millions of American children who depend on federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor and rural communities with parents who voted for Trump.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York called the order an oppressive power grab and one of the most destructive and destructive steps Donald Trump has taken yet. Margaret Spelling, the US Secretary of Education under George W. Bush, questioned whether the department would be able to fulfill its remaining missions and whether it would ultimately improve schools.