Is This the End of the Department of Education? – Top 3 Takeaways – March 21st, 2025
Takeaway #1: One of the Most Important Days in American History
For many people the most exciting thing that happened yesterday involved their brackets and their bets on the NCAA tournament. For some of us one of the most exciting moments of all time happened off a basketball court while many of the games were in full swing. Yesterday’s signing of an executive order aimed at ending the U.S. Department of Education is one of the most important moments of your or my lifetime. There is no issue I’ve spent more time addressing during my career than education, and there is no federal government department I’d rather see disbanded. And that’s for one very simple reason. It’s proven to be the most destructive department in American history. Assuming we all agree that education is foundationally important to our society – the greatest detriment to the best interests of educating our kids derives from the U.S. Department of Education. As I’ve illustrated as recently as this week, our country has been stuck on stupid (or at least ignorance anyway) for decades. The United States currently ranks 31st for education around the world. We were 2nd in education at the time of the creation of the Department of Education in 1980. From the jump the U.S. Department of Education wasn’t just an unnecessary detriment to education in this country, it was a Democrat devised way to indoctrinate and infiltrate their agendas in our schools. In 1979 Democrats retained complete control of the federal government and they used it to establish a department that would supersede the authority of state and local education departments. In the Department of Education Act it is stated that the 1st purpose of the Act is to: to strengthen the Federal commitment to ensuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual. What that came to mean was that rather than the education bar in this country being raised to the highest standards of the best performing state – we'd go the other way. The bar was lowered to the lowest common denominator – often in the name of equality. And this was established through many mechanisms tied to federal funding and measured through the implementation of standardized testing. While DEI is something that was proliferated by the Left in recent years – the origins of it from a public policy standpoint were rooted in the founding statement of the U.S. Department of Education. It was literally founded on the basis of DEI, and most of all, pushing it through federal policies and education regulations into all the states. This meant the end of any religious references, prayers or holidays, a la the advent of “Winter Break”. With the implementation of DEI related policies and the elimination of any religious references for 45 years, education in this country has gone in one direction compared to our peers. Down. While metal health and substance abuse issues have also gone in one direction. Up 300%+ according to Harvard’s findings. It’s of little surprise that if you eradicate educationally the most important principles in life, while also lowering the educational bar in the name of “equality”, that you’ll produce the failed results that we’ve seen. Still, despite the overwhelming facts demonstrating the catastrophe failures of the Department of Education, many will still argue that the failures aren’t the department’s fault and that that they do important work to aid our schools. Except not only is that not true, but it was also never true and that’s because the Department of Education wasn’t designed to enhance education. It was designed...
Takeaway #2: For the benefit of teachers unions
Fun fact. Did you know that the U.S. Department of Education wasn’t Jimmy Carter’s idea? Nor was it the idea of any members of congress. It most certainly didn’t come from the grass roots. So where did it come from? The NEA. That’s right, the largest teachers’ union of them all, the National Education Association is the entity that pressed for the establishment of the U.S. Department of Education. The union had been demanding that a cabinet level position be created for education and in the 1976 – presidential election cycle Jimmy Carter made the campaign promise to the NEA to do so to secure the union’s endorsement and the pledge of teacher’s votes. Never before had the NEA endorsed a presidential candidate but they did on the basis of Carter’s promise, which with a vote in 1979 he delivered on. The irony of the U.S. Department of Education isn’t just another failed federal government agency. It’s that it was literally established for the benefit of the teachers’ unions – not that of parents and students. And in that sense, it’s been wildly successful as the NEA and AFT have effectively influenced all education policies since its inception... Right down to getting the federal government to reverse its stance on reopening schools during the pandemic, which you’ll likely recall. The Department of Education succeeded in doing what it was always designed to do. Serve the political interests of the teachers’ unions – not you. So now that President Trump has signed the executive order calling for an end to the Department of Ed what happens?
Takeaway #3: What the Trump administration can do
What the Trump administration can’t do, without a vote by congress (that would require at least 60 votes in the senate – meaning the support of several Democrats), is fully eliminate the Department of Education. What the Trump administration can do however, is effectively cripple the department and its DEI enforcement mechanisms. Basically, if the administration eliminates most of the positions within the Department of Education, and closes offices within the department as well, there's a little bit of a tree falling in the forest effect in play. That’s only a half measure to be sure. The next measure that can take place is for congress to defund the Department of Education. In the current fiscal year that runs through September, the U.S. Department of Education received $268 billion in federal funding. As part of President Trump’s desired “big beautiful bill” Republicans can defund the department with a simple Republican majority reconciliation vote. If that were to happen the department would literally exist, but it effectively wouldn’t. $268 billion would also go an awfully long way towards helping DOGE achieve its cost savings goals – which are also an important part of President Trump being able to deliver on his tax cut plans. 21 states have already sued trying to stop the Trump administration for what they’ve already been doing to shrink the size of the Department of Ed. More are likely to be filed now. But those are the things that the Trump administration can do and that in the end no lawsuits could put an end to.