The Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building pictured on Nov. 25, 2024. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON — The largely partisan clash over whether to abolish the U.S. Department of Education came to the forefront at a Wednesday hearing by a U.S. House education panel, as rumors continue to circulate over President Donald Trump’s plans to dismantle the federal agency that’s just four-and-a-half decades old.
Trump campaigned heavily on a pledge to get rid of the department, which, among many responsibilities, administers funding for key programs, including for low-income school districts and special education, and also administers federal student aid.
Trump is reported to possibly issue some sort of executive order that seeks to diminish the department internally and calls on Congress to abolish the agency. He alone does not have the authority to close the department, and the effort would require congressional approval.
Lawmakers clashed at a House Committee on Education and Workforce hearing focused on “the state of American education,” particularly school choice, parental rights in education and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The president’s sweeping plan outlined throughout his campaign to “save American education” has already burst out of the floodgates since he took office last month.
He issued a series of education-related executive orders last week focused on prioritizing school choice funding, ending what the administration sees as “radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling” and taking “additional measures to combat anti-semitism.”
Trump also signed executive orders in January that gut DEI programs and activities across the federal government.
Restoring ‘common sense’
Rep. Tim Walberg, chair of the House education panel, said he is “pleased to see that the Trump administration is taking excellent steps to restore common sense, personal responsibility and parental choice through our education system.”
“In K-12 education, there’s much work that needs to be done,” the Michigan Republican said, pointing to the latest data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The report found that average math and reading scores in 2024 for fourth-and eighth-graders were lower compared to before the coronavirus pandemic, in 2019.
Nicole Neily, president and founder of Parents Defending Education, a parents’ rights group, said “American education is in crisis.”
“For far too long, U.S. schools have focused on everything but educating children, and as last week’s NAEP scores have shown, our children are bearing the brunt of these bad decisions,” she said.
‘We will fight any attempt’
Meanwhile, Democrats on the panel warned over the repercussions of dismantling the Education Department.
“The irony is not lost on me that we’re here to discuss the state of American education while the current administration is actively discussing how to dismantle the main federal agency responsible for ensuring safe, quality education for all students,” said Rep. Bobby Scott, ranking member of the panel.
“We will fight any attempt to dismantle the department, and so, we don’t know what the plan will be, but count on our opposition to any plan that will abolish the Department of Education and the programs in it,” the Virginia Democrat added.
Connecticut Democratic Rep. Jahana Hayes noted that since being created in 1979, the Education Department “has been committed to ensuring high-quality education for children across the country.”
“As (Chairman Walberg) noted, there are about 1 million children who participate in private school choice programs, but 49.6 million children participate in public school education — what about them? Who is advocating for them?” Hayes said.
Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said Trump’s executive orders to “restrict teaching and learning in inclusive and supportive environments and his threats to dismantle the Department of Education and upend critical enforcement of federal civil rights laws will demolish the very foundation of good citizenship.”
“We must reject these proposals out of the Project 2025 playbook and approach public education with common sense and common purpose, not separatism and self-dealing,” Nelson said.
Project 2025, the nearly 900-page policy proposal from the Heritage Foundation, outlines a vast conservative blueprint that, among many education-related priorities, calls for eliminating the Education Department.
This post was originally authored and published by Shauneen Miranda from via RSS Feed. to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
