Since its creation in May 1980, the Left has demanded Republicans justify opposing federal intervention in U.S. education. However, with President-elect Donald Trump‘s Department of Government Efficiency now promising to “outright delete” the Department of Education, it’s time to flip the script.
The real question isn’t, “Why should we eliminate the Department of Education?” It’s, “How can Congress possibly justify funding this ineffective and unconstitutional institution any longer?”
The answer is simple: It can’t.
By its own standards, the Department of Education has been an abject failure. The agency’s mission is “to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.” Yet, nearly 45 years after its creation under former President Jimmy Carter, high school seniors’ math and reading outcomes remain stagnant. Worse still, the academic achievement gap between the United States’ poorest and wealthiest students, a gap of four grade levels, has not narrowed since the department’s inception.
These dismal results come at a staggering cost. Funding this vast federal agency, with its more than 4,000 employees, has cost parents and U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars. Since 1980, K-12 spending and college costs have doubled in real terms, while every additional dollar funneled through Washington has come at the expense of local schools, including public, charter, and private, that actually educate our children. As the American Enterprise Institute’s Rick Hess recently pointed out, more than 1,000 Department of Education employees are paid more than $160,000 annually, with nearly 90 making upward of $200,000—more than four times the average starting teacher salary.
However, the department’s failures go far beyond inefficiency and waste. It is a morally bankrupt institution. By centralizing U.S. education—a responsibility historically entrusted to states and local communities—Washington has inserted itself between parents and schools, often with devastating consequences.
In just the past four years, the Biden administration has weaponized the federal government against parents and children in unprecedented ways. The FBI, under President Joe Biden’s direction, created “threat tags” to monitor parents simply for exercising their First Amendment rights at school board meetings and speaking up about critical matters such as school safety, boys in female bathrooms and locker rooms, and sexualized content in classrooms.
Meanwhile, the Department of Education rewrote Title IX rules to expand the definition of “sex” discrimination to include “gender identity” and then handed enforcement over to the Department of Agriculture, which threatened to withhold school meal funding from institutions that refused to embrace this radical ideology.
When the feds weren’t busy harassing parents or leveraging food for compliance with their woke agenda, the Department of Education demonstrated gross incompetence. It failed even in basic administration, botching the launch of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid that millions of families rely on to access federal student loans and grants. This isn’t governance. It’s an affront to families in the U.S.
Considering these egregious violations, Congress has a moral obligation to work with the Trump administration to dismantle the Department of Education. The onus isn’t on Republicans to justify why this bureaucratic relic should be abolished. It is on the Left to make the case for why this bureaucratic boondoggle should remain.
Predictably, many apologists will fearmonger, arguing that abolishing the department will hurt parents, students, and teachers. However, history tells a different story. U.S. education flourished long before the department ever existed and will do so again after it’s gone.
Indeed, eliminating or significantly rightsizing the department would be a boon to parents and teachers. Parents would have more agency over their child’s share of education funding, while teachers and school leaders would contend with fewer federal mandates and regulations. Students would be freer to learn and teachers freer to teach.
Others will argue that eliminating the department is logistically impossible. That’s nonsense. It won’t be easy, but with a clear mandate and cooperation between Congress and a principled administration, it can and must be done.
The first step is for Congress to pass a Department of Education Reorganization Act, eliminating all duplicative, ineffective, or inappropriate programs—programs that never belonged under federal control in the first place. The few that remain should be block-granted back to the states, empowering state and local leaders to allocate those funds for lawful education purposes under their own laws.
States, in turn, should make this funding student-centered and portable, giving families the freedom to choose the education option that best suits their needs. Any remaining federal responsibilities should be reassigned to agencies better suited to manage them. For example, funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act should move to the Department of Health and Human Services. Student loans can be managed by the Treasury Department, and data collection can be handled by the Census Bureau.
As part of the reconciliation process, Congress should also create a mandatory buyout fund that the president could use to pay Department of Education employees to retire early. In the meantime, all agency employees should be required to work in person five days a week.
In sum, the same Congress that created the Department of Education can and must abolish it. This isn’t just achievable. It’s politically popular, fiscally responsible, and morally essential. Any politician unwilling to take this step owes Americans an explanation as to why.