Posted on 11/17/2025 9:01:02 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Although mainstream outlets claim closing the Department of Education is unpopular, a new poll shows that once voters hear the specifics, most actually support the idea.
Initially, 51 percent oppose shutting down the Department, while 38 percent are in favor. But after learning that K-12 funding would remain intact and that useful functions would be shifted to other agencies, support rose to 56 percent. In comparison, opposition drops to 30 percent, according to a survey by the Yes Every Kid Foundation, which fights for school choice.
Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications at the Department of Education, told the New York Post:
President Trump and Secretary [Linda] McMahon are dedicated to improving education for our nation’s students — and that begins with empowering those who are closest to the child. Returning education to the states means rightsizing the federal role in education by removing unnecessary red tape and micromanagement by DC while maintaining critical funding for students with disabilities and low-income schools and continuing to protect students’ civil rights.
Even more information, such as how reading and math scores have declined over recent decades, drove support for abolishing the department to 59 percent.
It’s reasonable to assume that additional facts, including how much the Department spends per student and how ineffective the funding is at improving education, would only drive that support even higher.
Fulfilling President Trump’s goal of closing the Department of Education would require an act of Congress, but Republicans currently lack the votes to pass it. Instead, the president has directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to shrink the department to the “maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.” So far, she has reduced it by nearly half, consolidating several programs in preparation for the department's closure.
This survey stands in stark contrast to several popularly cited polls by the mainstream media, which have suggested that the move would be highly unpopular. The poll by the Yes Every Kid Foundation indicates that with better messaging, the American people would be entirely on board with the move.
Fake poll! I didn’t get to weigh in!
"The more true things you tell people about something, the more inclined they are to make the correct, informed choice."Yeah, that sounds about right.
I really wish Trump would finally ask someone in the House to take up and pass an abolish bill.
It would be sad if at the end of four years nothing but executive actions were done. That would make them temporary and in the end a massive win for progressives. It’s depressing to consider.
Teacher’s unions were the downfall of public education.
Kill it off and take the NSF with it!
Exactly! While these EO's offer some temporary relief, the necessary fundamental changes need the be installed as law, and not something the next person throws out the window.
Just as Trump has won numerous court decisions on the his ability as President to institute the changes he has made, those same decisions will be used by a Democrat President to enact their vision.
If only we had a government that worked according to the Constitution, and a Congress that actually functioned.
Before 1980 no one was educated or could read.>s
No federal funding for any education system period at any level. It’s a state issue not Federal.
Exactly.
I know this has been hashed over for a long time. Is it a matter of saving money, getting our educational system straightened out, or both? Obviously our system apparently is not working well in some respects & at the same time money might be saved by doing this. The main thing seems to be getting the system up to par in the educational levels. I’m an old guy & can see where much learning is not being learned. Is it the students or the system? I think it’s the system. There might a few dense students, but I think not as many as we seem to be seeing.
Correct.
‘ Is it a matter of saving money, getting our educational system straightened out, or both?’
I think it’s both.
Our K-12 government schools are failing because the radical left teachers unions have indoctrinated both teachers and thus students into leftist ideology.
These schools are governed by the states, so let’s get the Federal government out of it and let the states be the labs for success or failure. Hopefully the Red states employ radical change and reform and competition, that’s the only solution that will improve outcomes.
As I recall, in 1980 when the Dept. of Education was established, the US was considered among the best of all nations in public education. Today we rank among the worst, over 40th among the nations.
Exactly—the Department of Education has a stunning history of total failure.
...unless their goal was to create a nation of morons.
My school years were 1958 through 1971.
Learned to read with the phonics method, combined with recognizing simple words by sight. Started reading for fun.
I had some trouble with spelling in 2nd grade. My teacher wrote a note to my dad and included a list of words I was to learn. Dad took it very seriously, so every night after supper we had spelling drills at the kitchen table. No TV, no playing outside until work was complete. I became a good speller.
Arithmetic wasn’t hard. We all memorized the multiplication tables and learned to do long division and working with fractions.
Seldom did kids ‘act out’ in class or disrespect the teacher because they knew there would be consequences. When I was in 10th grade, one of the seniors (football player) was being a jerk in study hall. Teacher told him to knock it off and he replied, rudely, that there were only a couple days left until graduation so he was going to do as he pleased. The principal suspended him and did not allow him to walk onstage to receive his diploma.
The schooling I received gave me a solid foundation for my first full-time job after graduation. That (and Machinery’s Handbook), gave me the tools I needed to become a machinist.
We need traditional methods of teaching and discipline in class, instead of wacky modern crap that just confuses students and parents.
RE: As I recall, in 1980 when the Dept. of Education was established, the US was considered among the best of all nations in public education.
According to this article:
The claim that the U.S. was considered “the best of all nations in public education” when the Department of Education was established in 1980 is not accurate. There is no evidence showing that the U.S. held the top global position in public education at that time.
In fact, international math and science assessments from the 1960s through the 1980s show U.S. students typically ranked in the middle or lower tier among developed nations, especially in mathematics. For example, in the First International Mathematics Study (FIMS) of the mid-1960s, U.S. students ranked near the bottom in multiple categories.
See also here:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/unpacking-claims-us-dropped-1st-020000795.html
ABSOLUTELY
Check out this eighth grade test from the late 1800’s. Ran across this some years ago while teaching in a trade school. That’s when the questions I had been asking myself about some of the students were answered. To ponder this for too long starts to raise the blood pressure beyond what’s generally considered safe levels.
https://newrepublic.com/article/79470/1895-8th-grade-final-exam-i-couldnt-pass-it-could-you
I’d say we’ve fallen so far from a true education in this country that it simply exists overall to line the pockets of those that are not really interested in the education of our youth. It’s become another leviathan similar to insurance, medical, energy, sciences, etc... etc... Centralized control is certainly not the answer as this has been proven given the present pitiful state of our K-12 education system.
Local/State control... as before... is the answer... with oversight chosen from each county every year or two from a pool of true educators. Experience has shown that local school boards are critical for sane people to control otherwise.... just look around.
Higher education is a little more complicated dependent upon whose hands are in whose pockets at the state as well as federal level. Let’s just say..... that in Texas I know where the problem lies .... Austin.
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