Democrats are decrying what they call the fall of one of the most important agencies while Republicans are celebrating what they consider a move to slash red tape.
WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — President Donald Trump has long promised to dismantle the Department of Education (D.O.E.) and in just the first month of his second term is already making moves to do just that.
The Trump Administration, via the Elon Musk-led Department Of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E.), has already moved to cut more than $900 million from the department’s budget with more cuts seemingly imminent.
Nationwide, Democrats are decrying what they call an attack on one of the nation’s most important agencies while Republicans are celebrating what they consider a move to cut “red tape” around education.
So, what does the department actually do?
The History
The department as we know it today was created in 1979, but the D.O.E. tracks its existence back to 1867.
President Andrew Johnson first signed the Department of Education Act that year and created the agency, which would only last as an independent agency for one year.
The first iteration of the D.O.E. had only four employees and focused on compiling information on how states were progressing with school operations and “promoting the case of education” on a national level, according to a report from Politico.
When the then-leader of the department asked Congress for more funding, he was rebuked and ultimately the D.O.E. was folded into the Department of Interior, effectively minimizing the agency until President Jimmy Carter reestablished it in 1979.
The department has grown rapidly since its second inception and is now the sixth-largest government agency with a budget of $63 billion — 3% of the overall spending by the U.S. government, according to the U.S. Treasury.
Two of the D.O.E.’s biggest expenses are on Title 1 Part A, which helps fund school districts in lower-income communities and I.D.E.A. or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which gives money to school districts to help serve students with disabilities.
The department received more than $18 billion for Title 1 in 2023 and more than $15 billion for I.D.E.A. in the same year.
The department describes its mission as promoting student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness on its website.
The Proposal
Conservative groups have long argued that the Department of Education is ineffective at its stated goals of boosting education nationwide and that the federal government should have no role in education.
Trump has called the department a “big con job” and called for its immediate closure. Dismantling the department was also a key feature of Project 2025 during the presidential campaign. Although Trump has publicly distanced himself from Project 2025, he has since picked one of its architects, Russell Vought, to lead the powerful Office of Management and Budget.
There has not been a formal proposal from the Trump Administration so far on what would happen immediately after shuttering the agency. The Project 2025 proposal, however, calls for the dismantling of the agency while transferring some of its largest expenses to other government departments.
“Federal intervention in education has failed to promote student achievement,” states the proposal on page 323.
For example, it proposes transferring Title 1, Part A to the Department of Health and Human Services and says it should be administered as a “no-strings-attached” formula block grant.
Project 2025 proposes converting most I.D.E.A. funding into “no-strings-attached” formula block grants to be distributed directly to local education agencies.
A block grant is “an unrestricted grant made by the U.S. federal government to state and local governments to be used at their discretion to pay especially for social services that were formerly paid for through specific federal programs,” according to Merriam-Webster.
“Block grant advocates argue that block grants increase government efficiency and program effectiveness by redistributing power and accountability through decentralization and partial devolution of decision-making authority from the federal government to state and local governments,” according to a report from the Congressional Research Service.
Critics of block grants argue that “block grants can undermine the achievement of national objectives and can be used as a “backdoor” means to reduce government spending on domestic issues. For example, opponents of converting Medicaid into a block grant argue that “block granting Medicaid is simply code for deep, arbitrary cuts in support to the most vulnerable seniors, individuals with disabilities, and low-income children,” according to the report.
Trump has promised to abolish the Education Department and turn its power over to states and schools. The White House is considering an order that would direct Trump’s education chief to dismantle the agency as far as possible while calling on Congress to fully shut it down.
It’s unclear how far Trump could act on his own to slash the department’s spending, much of which is ordered by Congress.