Posted on Tuesday, March 25, 2025
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by Alan Jamison
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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.
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