Trump keeping his promise to abolish Education Department

The Hill ^ | 1/19/25 12:46 PM ET | Robby Soave

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill

The Trump administration signaled yesterday that it was moving forward on one of President Trump’s key election promises: shutting down the Department of Education. As someone who has advocated for this outcome for many, many years, I am personally thrilled it’s finally coming. 

 The administration announced that the department’s core functions would be handed off to other agencies in anticipation of finally closing down. Actually abolishing the Education Department would take an act of Congress, though the Supreme Court has OK’d Trump’s move to fire many of the department’s bureaucrats, which is a good start. 

 Frankly, it’s astonishing that this is actually happening.  

Republicans have been promising to shut down the Education Department for 50 years. Ronald Reagan ran on ending it in 1980, a decade before I was even born. Every Republican president and most GOP presidential candidates similarly vowed to shut it down, but then never took up the issue again when they had the chance. 

 The Trump administration is keenly aware of this. Yesterday, the Education Department’s social platform X account posted an unusually honest video about GOP achievements on this front to date.  

 If the day has finally come that a Republican administration is serious about fulfilling its promises and shutting down unnecessary federal bureaucracy, then great. To be clear, however, we should not merely shuffle all the existing functions of the department to other agencies: We should eliminate unnecessary, counterproductive and unconstitutional interference from the federal government into states’ education policies. 

 Closing the Department of Education is one of those ideas that really spooks liberal...

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TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS:

[Jim W N]

Education Dept

Only the tip of the 80%+, $3+ trillion unconstitutional federal gov't iceberg poised to sink America.

[proust]

True, but dollars and cents are one level of looking at it. An additional level is the power and top down control the department wields and abuses. Outsized proportions.

[SoConPubbie]

Maybe so, but that neither diminishes or negates this historic and heroic accomplishment by President Trump and his Administration!

[Navy Patriot]

Trump keeping his promise to abolish Education Department

Excellent!

Get rid of this wasteful boondoggle!

[Red6]

When they get rid of the department, guess what will happen?

Absolutely NOTHING.

The sun will rise, kids will go to school and busses will still run, teachers will still teach, textbooks will still be in classrooms, the building will still be there when the kids show up...

Many of these agencies and departments are political responses after some disaster, where politicians grand stand by pretending to offer solutions to these problems.

In many cases, these departments and agencies would not have even prevented or impacted the situation which was the impetus for their creation.

In the Carter era, education was a big issue in our media. So the department of education was created in 1979. Since then, have you seen common test score improve? Has education really improved?

Billions and billions are wasted in what is basically political theater.

[Jim W N]

True, but dollars and cents are one level of looking at it. An additional level is the power and top down control the department wields and abuses. Outsized proportions.

Nothing outweighs the unconstitutional federal gov't healthcare budget.

The HHS budget is $1 trillion!!!

[Sacajaweau]

NYS is the ONLY state that still has Regents Exams. Absolutely stupid and a waste of everyone’s time and money. Nothing wrong with local exams.

[iamgalt]

The money is not the main issue here. It is the imposed indoctrination the DOE enforces. We now have an entire generation of kids who were taught to hate their country. Especially girls.

[Jim W N]

God bless Trump, but he is only the beginning.

America is at great risk if the 80%+, $3 trillion unconstitutional portion of the federal gov’t isn’t dismantled NOW!!!

All you need is a corrupt gov’t-loving, Leftist, Constitution-negating Democrat in office to turn this country into a totalitarian regime where your constitutionally-protected freedom of speech, religion, voting, pursuits and wealth disappear.

Until this corrupt and illegal federal beast is slain, we are one election way from saying bye-bye to America. And uncontested Newsom is waiting in the wings to make the Free Constitutional Republic of America we know and love disappear.

NOW is the time for action!!!!

[Jim W N]

America is at great risk if the 80%+, $3 trillion unconstitutional portion of the federal gov’t isn’t dismantled NOW!!!

All you need is a corrupt gov’t-loving, Leftist, Constitution-negating Democrat in office to turn this country into a totalitarian regime where your constitutionally-protected freedom of speech, religion, voting, pursuits and wealth disappear.

Until this corrupt and illegal federal beast is slain, we are one election way from saying bye-bye to America. And uncontested Newsom is waiting in the wings to make the Free Constitutional Republic of America we know and love disappear.

[eyeamok]

have you seen common test score improve,

depends on what the meaning of “improve” means, it has turned a large percentage of public school students in to permanent welfare slaves too dumb to do anything on their own and wholly dependent on Government to control their pathetic lives

[17th Miss Regt]

Trump is awful. He wants to take womyn, children, LGBTQs and persons of color, and pack them all on the wheelchair with grandma and push them all off a cliff!

[17th Miss Regt]

Because racism!

[NorthMountain]

Only the tip

OK ... so don't bother shutting it down, since it doesn't matter.

NOT.

Do you know where more than half of federal spending goes?

[Jim W N]

Nothing outweighs the unconstitutional federal gov’t healthcare budget.

The HHS budget is $1 trillion!!!

NUKE IT ALL!!!!

[NorthMountain]

You misspelled "Social Security and Medicare".

NUKE IT ALL!!!!

It's the only way to be sure.

Which doesn't negate the value of nuking the Department of Education.

[Jim W N]

doesn't negate the value of nuking the Department of Education

False dichotomy.

NUKE IT ALL!!!

[Dr. Sivana]

Only the tip of the 80%+, $3+ trillion unconstitutional federal gov't iceberg poised to sink America.

It is not just about the money. It is MOSTLY about keeping the feds from interfering with the operation of local schools.

[NorthMountain]

You were the one complaining that the DOEd was just the tip of the iceberg.

Should it be eliminated? Yes or No?

I say “YES!!!!”. Should have been done in 1981.