3.26.25 - American Thinker
"Is It Possible for Trump To Abolish the Dept. of Education?"
By Carole Hornsby Haynes
Excerpts from this article:
…President Trump, in a packed East Room full of students, teachers, parents, education advocates, and governors from across the country, signed an Executive Order to shutter the department.
However, the DOE was created by Congress, so it cannot be eliminated entirely by executive order. [Congress must do its part to shut down the USDOE completely.]
…In true Trump fashion, he has directed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to dismantle it from within and transfer authority back to the states.
Those functions of the DOE which are based on federal statutes will be transferred to other departments.
The order also directs that no remaining DOE funds can be used to advance DEI or gender ideology.
Since the department was established in 1979, it has thrown at least $1 trillion down the rat hole with little to show for it.
…Shutting down the department [under Sect. of Ed. Linda McMahon] has already begun…
About half of the 4,100 workers have been laid off.
More than a billion dollars in contracts or grants have been cancelled.
Many of these funded leftwing ideologies taught in classrooms, including diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and radical sex, that have drawn nationwide parent protests.
Pell Grants, student loans, and special education will remain and be fully funded.
The nearly $1.7 trillion in federally backed student loans and Pell Grants will be transferred to the Small Business Administration (SBA).
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) will be transferred to Health and Human Services (HHS).
Other departments to which various functions might be shifted include Labor, State, Interior, Justice, Commerce, and the Bureau of Indian Education.
In a previous executive order, President Trump banned K-12 schools from teaching anti-American or subversive content, gender ideology, and critical race theory.
Alyza Harris points out that this presidential order has a far greater reach than education, specifically biomedical research and the funding for the National Institute of Health (NIH).
It cancels “federal grants for diversity-related projects and places a cap on indirect cost payments – funds previously used by universities under the pretense of supporting research infrastructure but often diverted into administrative overhead.”
…U.S. Parents Involved in Education (USPIE) has developed a five-step strategic blueprint which they have shared with Washington policymakers.
USPIE's comprehensive plan actually abolishes federal control over education instead of moving the chessmen around.
1. Send all program management and funding to the states.
2. Repeal all laws permitting federal intervention in education starting with ESSA.
3. Privatize college loan programs through savings and loan institutions.
4. Eliminate all offices and divisions in the US Department of Education and related spending.
5. Reduce federal tax collection, shifting education revenue collection entirely back to the states.
At the state level there is already an infrastructure …with tens of thousands of employees who oversee and manage federal education programs.
States have numerous food programs which could incorporate the federal lunch program.
Administering the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) can be moved to an independent nonprofit research institute as it was previously.
…According to government studies, the program [Head Start] has not improved the school readiness of low-income children over more than 60 years.
Under ESSA [Every Student Succeeds Act -- passed by Congress in 2015 while Obama was President], Head Start is now tied to national preschool standards (Common Core for Tots) and psychosocial standards.
Unfortunately, the Department of Education has been highly successful at what it was intended to do:
Established as political payback to teachers' unions for support of Jimmy Carter
Government control over what children are taught and how they think
Dumbing down of students
Control of education at the state and local levels
At this point, totalitarianism can readily be imposed on a dumbed down, compliant population.
Education has been weaponized and become a national security threat.
There must not be any question as to whether the DOE is abolished, all federal statutes allowing federal intervention are repealed, and total control is returned to the states -- free of any federal funding.
The future of a free America depends upon this.
To see other articles by Carole Hornsby Haynes, please click here: