In March, Donald Trump dismissed half the workforce at the U.S. Department of Education and signed an executive order calling for the department’s elimination as part of his effort to “send education back to the states.”
“Ultimately, the Department of Education’s main functions can, and should, be returned to the states,” said the March 20 order, “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States and Communities.”
But most decisions about public education already are handled by states, and some wonder whether states are equipped to take on additional duties and costs.
And like many of Trump’s executive orders, his order calling for the education department to be eliminated likely exceeds his constitutional authority, and a lawsuit opposing the order was filed four days later.
Democracy Forward and a coalition including educators, school districts and unions filed a lawsuit March 24 to “stop the dismantling of the Department of Education and mass firings that will decimate the crucial services the department provides to every American.”
Will Trump be able to shut it down? And what happens if he does? Here’s a look at the department’s history.
Secretary of Education nominee Linda McMahon testifies during her confirmation hearing in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Thursday, February 13, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
Fewest employees of any cabinet-level agency
In 2024, the Department of Education spent $267.9 billion, which is 3.9% of federal spending, and employed 4,209 people, about 0.2% of the federal workforce, meaning it has the fewest employees of any Cabinet-level agency, according to an overview provided by Pew Research Center, which summarized its activities:
Most of the department’s work involves distributing grants and loans to institutions and individuals. It provides grants to help local public K-12 schools educate disadvantaged and disabled students; assists low- and middle-income college students; and funds work-study programs, rehabilitative services, school improvement efforts, education research and much more.
The department is the largest source of loans to college students and in 2024, 38 million borrowers owed $1.47 trillion. That year the department also provided $150.3 billion in grants to public schools, Pew reported, including:
- $18.8 billion for schools with large numbers of poor, neglected, delinquent and other “educationally disadvantaged” students
- $15.5 billion for special education programs for students with disabilities
- $5.5 billion for a wide variety of school improvement efforts, such as making teachers more effective, funding high-quality after-school programs, and making better use of classroom technology
- $3.8 billion for adult rehabilitation services
- $2.2 billion for career, technical and adult education
Who will be hurt?
Many GOP leaders decry the Department of Education, but Trump-supporting red states are more dependent on department spending than Democratic-leaning blue states.
When Pew asked which 10 states rely most on federal funding for local public K-12 schools, the answers are all red: Mississippi, South Dakota, Montana, Alaska, Arkansas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Arizona, Oklahoma and Tennessee depend on the federal department for at least 19% of their state education budgets.
Among cities, blue Detroit gets nearly half its education budget from federal funds, but eight red cities are among the 10 school systems most reliant on federal spending.
It’s not clear whether Trump plans to continue or end federal grants to public schools, leaving some to wonder whether states are prepared to pick up the slack.
“The reality is that allowing each state to pursue its own education reforms without any meaningful federal guardrails is a risky bet,” said an opinion article in Education Week titled, “Trump Wants to Send Education ‘Back to the States.’ Are States Even Ready?”
“Handing over education to the states sounds simple — like pouring coffee into a cup. In practice, however, it’s more akin to pouring it onto a plate,” said the article. “Instead of channeling efforts productively, this shift risks spilling out in all directions, creating confusion rather than progress.”
A ‘marked partisan split’
Battles have long raged over the federal government’s role in education. As a result, there’s a “a marked partisan split” of opinion on the education department, Pew reports.
Overall, 45% of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the department, while 44% have a favorable opinion, making it the 14th most popular department out of 16. Americans’ favorite departments are the National Park Service and the Postal Service.
“Around six in 10 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (64%) viewed it unfavorably, while nearly the same share of Democrats and Democratic leaners (62%) viewed it favorably,” a Pew report explains.
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida was among those present when Trump signed his executive order to dismantle the department, as were Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn, Moms for Liberty founder Tiffany Justice, according to Focus on the Family.
Elsewhere, Focus quoted anti-public education activist Christopher Rufo: “The department maintains a sprawling network of ideological centers through its research programs, as well as a vast array of NGOs, which survive on department funding and promote left-wing identity activism. These groups have become hotbeds of progressive identity politics, promoting theories of ‘systemic racism’ and the idea that men can turn into women.
Focus says the problems with American education began long ago: “Much of the ‘dumbing down’ … was a deliberate effort, starting with John Dewey in the early 20th century, to move American education from teaching basic life skills to becoming a venue where children are treated like test animals to experiment the latest progressive theories on.”
Partisan divisions have arisen nearly every time the federal government takes a role in education.
After Congress passed the School Lunch Act in 1946, some conservatives said it was “communistic” to provide lunches to students, give subsidies to farmers for their surplus and mandate nutritional standards for participating schools.
Conservatives also condemned judicial rulings on schools, particularly Supreme Court decisions against segregated schools (Brown v. Board of Education, 1954), school prayers (Engel v. Vitale, 1962) and mandatory Bible readings (Abington School District v. Schempp, 1963).
These rulings helped turn James Dobson, who formerly said he had been privileged to teach in California public schools, into an ardent public school foe who claimed they functioned as atheistic indoctrination centers.
He wasn’t alone, and the battles over education didn’t stop after Jimmy Carter created a new Department of Education in 1979.
Before 1979
The history of the Department of Education — and disagreements about its role — begins long before 1979, according to Pew Research Center.
Congress first created the Department of Education in 1867 but changed course the next year, demoting the department to an office that for the next century would have different names and be headquartered in other departments. It became part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, which was created in 1953.
Pew says education remained a relatively minor federal concern until the 1960s, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik satellite, America embarked on a space race and federal education spending swelled.
Death wish
Conservatives have hated the Department of Education since its formal creation in 1979 but no conservative president before Trump — not even Trump himself his first time in office — had the political will to kill it off.
Yet this very action was a campaign promise of Trump 2.0
Even before wrestling industry billionaire Linda McMahon was appointed education secretary and pledged to help Trump shut the department down, administration officials were “enforcing Trump’s education agenda and executive orders with gusto,” said the Family Research Council.
“The president’s bold beginning is being magnified by willing and capable ‘acting’ officials who are taking full advantage of the moment,” said FRC, which highlighted three priorities:
- “Ending the Left’s ‘book ban’ hoax”
- “Dumping DEI to focus on learning
- “Ending gender insanity”
Some see another motive for shutting the education department down. As Right Wing Watch headlined, “Destruction of Education Department is Chance to Push Religious Indoctrination in Schools.”
“The religious Right group Family Research Council promoted an excited letter to supporters Thursday saying that President Donald Trump’s dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education could be a ‘game-changer for FRC’s efforts to ‘bring faith and the Bible back to public schools,” Right Wing Watch reported.
This is part of a “dual strategy” conservative groups pursue, the article declared: “Urging activists to take over public school boards while advocating for ‘school choice’ laws to divert funding away from public schools.”
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