Trump Downsizes DC

Returns educational power (and money) back to the states

Mar 20, 2025

At the White House today, Donald Trump signed an executive order instructing the federal government to begin dismantling the Department of Education. Although it’s likely Congress will need to approve a full abolition of the department, Trump has already reduced the number of employees at the agency and looks to continue this trend with this executive order.

Here’s the video of the actual signing ceremony — complete with Trump being the showman he is.

Libertarians have long argued the Department of Education serves no real purpose. Created in 1979, the agency doesn’t actually teach students and often actually gets in the way of education through unfunded mandates. (When the government tells you that you must do something, but doesn’t give you the funds to actually do it — meaning you have to pay for the compliance yourself. This should sound familiar to business owners.) You may remember this controversy from the second Bush administration’s “No Child Left Behind” Act.

But mostly, libertarians don’t like the Department of Education because it doesn’t actually help students.

And that’s not TOO surprising because effectively all we’re doing is taking money from the states and sending money back to the states. (With JUST a bit off the top for “administration”, of course.)

Then there’s the fact the DoE in general (and Randi Weingarten specifically) happily threw an entire generation of children under the bus during the covid years. Like the medical professionals I talked about yesterday, the “education experts” abandoned their most important job — sticking up for children — at the very moment it was needed most.

Instead, they rolled over and took orders from teachers’ unions.

Emails show a call between Walensky and Weingarten — the former boss of New York City’s United Federation of Teachers — was arranged for Feb 7.
The lobbying paid off. In at least two instances, language “suggestions” offered by the union were adopted nearly verbatim into the final text of the CDC document.

Whatever the Department of Education was created to do, it’s clearly failing. Let’s worry less about DC politics and more about actually educating children. This is NOT sustainable:

Let’s try something new.

This doesn’t have to be long-term. Tip me on Ko-fi — no subscription required!

The full video of today’s event:

And the full text of the executive order (just released):

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to enable parents, teachers, and communities to best ensure student success, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1. Purpose and Policy. Our Nation’s bright future relies on empowered families, engaged communities, and excellent educational opportunities for every child. Unfortunately, the experiment of controlling American education through Federal programs and dollars — and the unaccountable bureaucracy those programs and dollars support — has plainly failed our children, our teachers, and our families.

Taxpayers spent around $200 billion at the Federal level on schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, on top of the more than $60 billion they spend annually on Federal school funding. This money is largely distributed by one of the newest Cabinet agencies, the Department of Education, which has existed for less than one fifth of our Nation’s history. The Congress created the Department of Education in 1979 at the urging of President Jimmy Carter, who received a first-ever Presidential endorsement from the country’s largest teachers’ union shortly after pledging to the union his support for a separate Department of Education. Since then, the Department of Education has entrenched the education bureaucracy and sought to convince America that Federal control over education is beneficial. While the Department of Education does not educate anyone, it maintains a public relations office that includes over 80 staffers at a cost of more than $10 million per year.

Closing the Department of Education would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them. 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. The Federal education bureaucracy is not working.

Closure of the Department of Education would drastically improve program implementation in higher education. The Department of Education currently manages a student loan debt portfolio of more than $1.6 trillion. This means the Federal student aid program is roughly the size of one of the Nation’s largest banks, Wells Fargo. But although Wells Fargo has more than 200,000 employees, the Department of Education has fewer than 1,500 in its Office of Federal Student Aid. The Department of Education is not a bank, and it must return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve America’s students.

Ultimately, the Department of Education’s main functions can, and should, be returned to the States.

Sec. 2. Closing the Department of Education and Returning Authority to the States. (a) The Secretary of Education shall, to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.
(b) Consistent with the Department of Education’s authorities, the Secretary of Education shall ensure that the allocation of any Federal Department of Education funds is subject to rigorous compliance with Federal law and Administration policy, including the requirement that any program or activity receiving Federal assistance terminate illegal discrimination obscured under the label “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or similar terms and programs promoting gender ideology.

Sec. 3. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE,
March 20, 2025.