Both supporters and opponents of the Department of Education doubt that President-elect Donald Trump can muster the congressional support to eliminate the 44-year-old agency, but they anticipate significant changes.
The Trump administration likely will gain approval from the Republican-controlled Congress to cripple the power of teachers unions and redirect federal school choice funds away from the department’s control.
“I believe he fully intends to do something dramatic about how the federal Department of Education functions,” said Jeanne Allen, a senior official in the Education Department during the Reagan administration. “Whether or not that results in a dismantling in the near future, that remains to be seen.”
One of Mr. Trump’s campaign promises was to shutter the Education Department, a long-sought goal of conservative activists who say the agency has become mired in liberal politics and left-wing ideology.
Sen. Mike Rounds, South Dakota Republican, introduced a bill last week to “abolish the Department of Education” and redistribute its programs to other federal agencies. Mr. Trump will need the support of narrow Republican majorities in the House and Senate to send the legislation to his desk after his Jan. 20 inauguration.
Several political insiders interviewed by The Washington Times predicted that solid opposition from Democrats and moderate Republicans could force Mr. Trump to settle for smaller bills off-loading specific programs.
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“I just don’t see enough support for that,” said Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. “That’s especially true if the Senate filibuster remains in place.”
Democratic Party strategist James Carville said Republicans’ presidential and legislative electoral victories this month don’t guarantee that Mr. Trump’s agenda will be implemented.
“I am not a political Presbyterian, [and] don’t think outcomes [are] predestined,” said Mr. Carville, referring to a belief in the president-elect’s religious tradition that God arranges people’s fates.
Ms. Allen, founder and CEO of the Center for Education Reform, said support for dismantling the department reached an all-time high after historic K-12 learning losses that were attributed to COVID-19 measures and a year of anti-Israel demonstrations disrupting college campuses.
She said Mr. Trump must negotiate with lawmakers to untether decades of federal programs from the ever-expanding department. Federal statutes immunize those programs against presidential executive orders and prevent any interventions by Linda McMahon, Mr. Trump’s nominee for education secretary.
“Ms. McMahon needs to go in there like a plumber and start banging on pipes to see what sticks,” Ms. Allen said. “Trump is the homeowner. He was elected, he has a mandate, and she can execute it.”
Ms. Allen said the Education Department’s annual budget, excluding the Federal Student Aid program, has grown from $18 billion during her tenure in the 1980s to about $80 billion today. The department has about 4,400 employees.
In an email, the Department of Education declined to comment on the president-elect’s pledge and referred The Times to his campaign.
Mr. Trump’s team did not respond to an email seeking comment.
School choice
Far from ending all government spending on education, conservative school choice advocates have lobbied for years to strip the Education Department of its power to administer federal tax dollars in a way that favors public school districts.
Nina Rees, a longtime charter school lobbyist and an Education Department official in the George W. Bush administration, said Republican lawmakers are more likely to support legislation establishing federal savings accounts for families to spend public funding on the schools of their choice.
She said educational freedom advocates’ efforts to shore up support among lawmakers have gained steam.
“Another place where the president, with Congress’ support, can reduce the number, size and scope of the Department of Education is through the budget and appropriations process,” Ms. Rees said.
She said Republicans could tie funding to “evidence-based programs” that improve standardized test scores.
MacKenzie Price, who has founded eight private Alpha Schools campuses in Texas and Florida since 2014, estimated that states could boost annual teacher pay by $10,000 to $20,000 by redistributing most federal education funds directly to state and local agencies.
Her campuses emphasize teaching financial literacy, teamwork and leadership skills through in-classroom software programs, in contrast with the traditional K-12 learning models favored by the Department of Education.
“I was a frustrated mom who found traditional schools weren’t working for my two daughters,” said Ms. Price, who lives in Austin, Texas. “I do think the Department of Education needs a major overhaul, and things need to be sent back to the states. Education is a local issue.”
As an example of how bureaucracy diverts tax dollars away from classrooms, she pointed to data showing that Chicago’s public schools spend more than $30,000 per student but devote most of that money to administrative and office costs. Moreover, she said only about 10% of local school budgets come from the Education Department.
Union opposition
Multiple studies have linked historic declines in math and reading scores to pandemic emergency lockdown policies. Data shows that K-12 students in high-poverty and multicultural school districts suffered the most during remote learning.
The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, endorsed those lockdowns in 2020 and has predicted that the incoming Trump administration will fail to abolish the Education Department.
“Parents and educators will stand together to support students and reject the harmful, outlandish and insulting policies being pushed by the Trump administration,” NEA President Becky Pringle said in a statement last week.
Conservative education insiders say the Trump administration is likely to move quickly against teachers unions after taking office. One option is to issue an executive order to enforce laws against mandatory union membership, which they say public school districts have ignored in practice for years.
Some parental rights groups insisted it is too early to predict whether the Education Department will survive the Trump administration. They pointed out that anything is possible and pledged to fight for the votes to close it.
“Before this department was created, the vast majority of American children could read and perform math with excellence,” said Rebecca Friedrichs, founder of the educational reform group For Kids and Country and a longtime critic of teachers unions. “Today, well under half are performing at grade level.”
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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