After 50 years of mismanagement, waste, and political propaganda, the Department of Education (ED) is on its way to shutting its doors.
Since it first opened its doors in 1979, ED has spent nearly $3 trillion dollars, yet the state of education has not improved. At best, it has stagnated. In some districts, it has even become dramatically worse. Nationwide math and reading scores for 8th grade students are the lowest that they have ever been. Yet instead of focusing on efforts to improve basic academic success, ED has forced local school districts to implement gender and divisive race-based ideology curriculum in order to receive federal funds.
That’s why we at Concerned Women for American (CWA) and the broader school choice movement celebrated when, earlier this month, President Trump signed an executive order (EO) calling for the closure of ED.
At best, ED has been ineffective in its mission to improve education. At worst, the quality of education has plummeted off the proverbial cliff. There is a very real crisis of learning inadequacy in America that has implications for our ability to self-govern, stay competitive against hostile countries like China, and continue to innovate and grow the nation’s economy.
Closing ED will ultimately require an act of Congress, so President Trump’s EO calls on legislators to make it a top priority. It also gives the Secretary of Education authority to begin reviewing the necessity of certain grants and move any critical programs to other agencies.
Opposition to shutting down the agency is fierce. Many argue that special needs and low-income students will lose access to education, that closing ED will mean shutting down important programs that help impoverished families. This is false. Both Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) funding and Title I programs (those programs that aid low-income students, such as free school lunches) will remain intact, but will be housed under other, more appropriate, agencies. After signing the EO, Pres. Trump announced that “special needs and all of the nutrition programs” will move to Health and Human Services (HHS). Student loans, another one of ED’s high-profile programs, will be handled by the Small Business Administration.
The primary result of closing ED will be to remove bureaucratic red tape from the education system, allowing students and school districts to receive the funds they need without the strings they do not want. Closing ED will not only save millions of taxpayer dollars, but it will also be good for both students and teachers. By placing more power over education into the hands of the states, teachers will be freer to instruct their students without the strings of federal restrictions. Parents will be able to exercise their right to direct the education of their kids. And schools will be more capable of catering to the needs of students, rather than worrying about complying with regulations from D.C.
Proof of this is the state-led initiatives that have seen incredible success in the last few years. For example, Louisiana has implemented several education reforms, including courses for teachers on the “science of reading” and a law that requires struggling students to repeat a grade rather than passing them. As a result, Louisiana was the only state to surpass its pre-COVID math and reading scores on the 2024 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). These were not reforms led by ED but by Louisiana officials who better understood the problems within their state and how to address them.
The Department of Education was established to ensure quality in education, but it has instead created a tangle of bureaucracy that wastes tax dollars and prevents students from getting the education they need to succeed in life. It’s time to turn off the lights and get Washington special interests out of the business of educating our children.