President Trump took a big first step in making conservatives' dreams come true Thursday by signing an executive order (EO) effectively dismantling the Department of Education, and returning federal budgets and decision-making back to where they always should have been: with state and local officials.
There are a multitude of reasons why Trump's actions fill us with joy, but we're happiest for our kids, who have fallen further and further behind despite gobs of taxpayer money being spent on them. We're also pretty darn thrilled that Trump stuck it to the teachers' unions, who have really enjoyed their decades-long stranglehold on the department that was essentially a gift to them from Jimmy Carter. It was a disaster from the get-go, as are most things run by Democrats, and this comeuppance was a long time coming.
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IT'S DONE: Trump Signs Monster Executive Order Aimed at Closing Education Department
Unfortunately, there's only so much the president can do to—to borrow a phrase from Chuck Schumer—"expel this turd" of a department from existence once and for all. It'll take an act of Congress to do that. Hoo boy, we'll get to that in a minute.
First, though, let's look at what the EO, officially called Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities, actually does. The Trump administration's justification for wanting to close the department is compelling:
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.
To fix this, the EO instructs Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon to "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." So, any claims by Democrats that services will be disrupted is pure bunk.
Secretary McMahon is also tasked with making sure federal education funds are in strict compliance with administration policies and has the discretion to terminate any monies "obscured" under DEI programs. What she can't do, however, is completely shut down operations and abolish her department.
So, for now, the Department of Education exists, but in an extremely diminished capacity. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that the student loan and Pell Grants offices would remain open as other department operations wind down, but those may soon be overseen by the Small Business Administration. And it looks like its Office of Civil Rights may soon be moving over to the Department of Justice.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was in attendance at the White House for the signing of the EO, had nothing but praise for the move by President Trump, saying previous administrations had wielded the power of the Department of Eduction in ways the Constitution never intended.
DeSantis noted that it only makes sense to let states dictate how federal education dollars are spent, as Florida, which operates on a budget surplus and doesn't allow leftist politics to dictate educational standards, operates much differently from, say, California.
The good governor also took the Republican-controlled Congress to task for taking a two-week spring break instead of staying in DC to codify the shuttering of the Department of Education, emphasizing that no Republican candidate is going to win a primary by saying they want to keep the department around.
So, this means the stage is set for Congress to take the steps necessary to abolish it for good, something DeSantis thinks probably won't happen, and there are some token efforts already afoot. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) introduced the "Returning Education to Our States Act" last year, but it's gone nowhere. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has a similar bill making the rounds in the House, but there are no signs that leadership is making it a priority.
While it's possible Massie's bill could pass the House in a squeaker, the real trouble is in the Senate. It would require a supermajority of 60 votes to pass, and that would mean getting the support of seven Democrats. And that ain't happening.
So, maybe we just celebrate the win of now having a greatly-diminished Department of Education, but there's a real danger in doing that. Places like that have a tendency to regenerate if not removed root and branch. President Trump's EO is a monumental step toward restoring local control over education, but the fight isn’t over yet.
Now over to you, Speaker Johnson and Majority Leader Thune.
