The answer to the question is yes, of course. Let’s discuss why.
Good Riddance to the U.S. Education Department
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has a good Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal entitled Good Riddance to the U.S. Education Department
That’s a free link.
Florida’s success has been a direct result of the efforts I’ve described above—nearly all of which were done despite federal headwinds, and in opposition to the policies and priorities pushed by the federal Department of Education.
One telling example was the Biden administration’s attempt to strip Florida of federal school lunch money because I signed a law in 2021 to protect women’s sports. We stood our ground, but how ridiculous is it that the federal government would try to shoehorn states into jamming men into women’s athletic competitions?
For decades, the federal government has tied more strings than ever imaginable to our federal education dollars for both secondary and postsecondary education.
The idea of abolishing the U.S. Department of Education isn’t new. Ronald Reagan proposed it in 1981. Reagan said, “By eliminating the Department of Education less than two years after it was created, we can not only reduce the budget but ensure that local needs and preferences, rather than the wishes of Washington, determine the education of our children.”
More than 40 years after he uttered those words, the sentiment is truer than ever. The department had more than 4,100 employees and a $80 billion budget. What sort of return on investment did we see for our schools? Despite tens of billions of dollars pouring into the U.S. Department of Education annually, students never see the bulk of this spending in their classrooms—it gets tied up in a web of ideologically driven bureaucratic red tape.
Key Points
- We abolished Common Core, which had been pushed by the Obama administration, because it didn’t work for our students. Florida replaced it with high-quality, content-rich standards, Florida’s Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking, or BEST, which outline the state’s expectations at each grade level.
- We enacted universal school choice, which eliminated financial eligibility restrictions and the enrollment cap for school choice scholarship programs. In 2024 Florida had more than 524,000 students utilizing a school choice scholarship for private school or home schooling.
- Our students are tested at the beginning, middle and end of the year, providing teachers and parents with immediate, real-time data on student progress and allowing the opportunity for interventions before a student falls too far behind. Our students have shown significant year-over-year improvements using this testing model.
- We have also supported the expansion of charter schools, which now enroll more than 400,000 Florida students—a population that is majority low-income yet performs above its peers in traditional school districts.
- These record expansions are why the Heritage Foundation and the ALEC Index of State Education Freedom have both ranked Florida as the No. 1 state for education freedom for several years in a row.
- We also returned education to the core principles of teaching math, reading, history and science. That is why we were first to eliminate discriminatory and divisive theories that crept into our education systems such as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Critical Race Theory. We created a simple legal framework: Schools should educate, not indoctrinate.
- Florida has led the nation in refocusing our education systems on educating our students for lifelong success by eliminating DEI, expanding educational options, and making data-driven investments that support positive student outcomes.
Carefully Phrased Question
There is overwhelming evidence that the US Department of Education is rotten to the core and should be eliminated.
But notice how I carefully phrased the lead question. I started my question with “Should Congress …” not “Should Trump …”
The problem with the wording “Should Trump Eliminate the US Department of Education?” is Trump has no legal authority to do so.
If it was that easy, Reagan, Bush I, or Bush II would have done it.
And you don’t just eliminate the department without a plan because it would create chaos.
Properly executed, I am 100 percent in favor of efforts to abolish the Department of Education. But good luck doing it by Executive Order.
The unfortunate reality for those of us who would like to see the department cancelled is the courts will block the order, and justifiably so.
The Good News
The good news is Republicans hold the White House, Senate, and House.
Many of Trump’s executive orders can be bundled into a package and passed in Congress on a simple majority reconciliation vote, not subject to filibuster, if only Trump would go that route.
I don’t know if Trump would get everything he wants, but he would get many things he wants.
I propose two separate bills, one for the border and these kinds of actions, and a second one for tax policy.
The Bad News (Really Bad News)
The really bad news is Trump refuses to go the above route.
Time and time again, Trump has not chosen a clearly legal way to get things done but has instead relied on dubious (at best), executive orders.
Trump then complains about the “activist court” when the problem is an excessively activist executive branch that is losing case after case, as called in advance.
Trump Cancel Culture
I discussed why Trump is losing in Supreme Court Justice Roberts Issues Warning to the Trump Cancel Culture
Republicans now act just like AOC and the Progressive cancel culture activists.
As expected, I lost readers for that post. One person accused me of being “Extreme Liberal Left”.
What a hoot.
The facts of the matter are: I support eliminating the Department of Education, I support abolishing DEI, I support ending greenhouse gas nonsense, I support getting rid of much of USAID, and I support a DOGE overhaul, as long as all of them are done legally.
But hey, I am “Extreme Liberal Left” because that is how the Trump Cancel Culture (TCC) who sees everyone who disagrees with Trump on anything.
The reason why I want these things done legally is they will not happen otherwise, as the courts have ruled.
But go ahead, keep firing pot shots at the messenger for predicting the Trump court losses that have occurred.