Ideological Differences: Will Trump Succeed in Getting Rid of the Department of Education?

“Trump and his surprise education secretary could radically change education in the United States.”
US President-elect Donald Trump has chosen his transition co-chair Linda McMahon as his pick to serve as the next secretary of the Department of Education, sparking controversy given her distance from education and his desire to eliminate the department.
Trump sees the Department of Education — and education in general — as corrupting students, brainwashing young people, pushing leftist ideology on children, and promoting racial and gender-based material.
Experts and lawmakers warn that getting rid of the department could face significant obstacles, especially given its central role in funding education and administering student loans.
Similarly, several prominent Republicans have proposed closing the department over the years, arguing that it interferes without constitutional authority in state affairs and school curricula, most notably former President Ronald Reagan and a number of lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
To close the department entirely, Trump would need to convince Congress and perhaps a supermajority in the Senate (60 votes).
Trump’s Pledges
President-elect Donald Trump recently picked Linda McMahon, the former CEO of professional wrestling company WWE, to lead the Department of Education, which he had vowed to eliminate earlier in his campaign.
Trump justified his choice by saying that “Linda will make America the number one education center in the world, and she is a passionate advocate for parental rights.”
Although McMahon is relatively unknown in American education circles, Trump pointed to her two years on the Connecticut State Board of Education and 16 years on the board of trustees of Sacred Heart University, a private Catholic college.
McMahon, who twice ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut, has said she supports school choice, stricter accountability, and local oversight of education.
As part of his Agenda47 political platform, Trump has sometimes said he wants to eliminate the Department of Education entirely, with all education-related matters transferred to the states.
The US Department of Education was officially established on October 17, 1979, and began operating on May 4, 1980, when President Jimmy Carter signed the law creating it.
The department’s primary goal was to support students and promote equal access to education, making it a vital factor in ensuring a balanced education system in the United States.
The department funds public schools with $28 billion annually to support elementary and secondary education. It also allocates an additional $30 billion to help low-income students access higher education.
It also manages a massive student loan portfolio worth $1.6 trillion. The department’s budget for 2024 is $238 billion.
However, the Education Department’s involvement in local schools is limited, as it is legally barred from dictating local school curricula or professional standards for teachers.
Whether Trump and McMahon are actually able to shut down the department, which has 4,425 employees, will depend on how far they can overcome practical and political obstacles.
Some Republicans say Trump shouldn’t waste political capital doing that, and instead say he should use the agency to fight leftist ideology in schools and universities.

Political Battleground
The Associated Press said the President-elect’s vision for education revolves around one goal: ridding America’s schools of leftist indoctrination.
Throughout his campaign, Trump portrayed schools as a political battleground that must be reclaimed from the left, and after winning the White House, he plans to use federal funds as leverage to advance his vision for education across the country.
Trump wants to ban classes on gender identity and gender-based racism, eliminate diversity and inclusion offices, and keep transgender athletes out of women’s sports.
He also said he would work to pass a parental rights bill that would give parents more of a say in what children learn, as opposed to the role that teachers currently have.
In an interview with Elon Musk, Trump said he wants to abolish the agency and instead put a single official in charge of the Department of Education, in line with his goal of dismantling government bureaucracy and restructuring government agencies to make them more efficient.
Trump also said that on his first day in office, he would cut funding to any school that promotes critical race theory, transphobia, or other racist, sexist, or political content that is inappropriate for children.
Trump hopes to implement several federal policies in schools nationwide, most notably ending programs that promote transgenderism at any age and punishing teachers and schools that do so.
According to education experts, abolishing the Department of Education could leave billions of dollars in scholarships and grants hanging over millions of K-12 students and college students in the country.
According to ABC, critics of the department argue that federal spending on education has ballooned since its founding — costing $23 billion so far in fiscal year 2025, about 4% of all government spending to date.
House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx has argued that there is no constitutional requirement for such a department.
While theoretically possible, education policy experts say it would be a messy, unrealistic undertaking, and the initiative would not be implemented immediately after Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
Failed Attempts
On September 13, 2023, as part of his campaign for his proposed vision for improving education, Trump spoke of his desire to abolish the Department of Education and give state governments the responsibility for determining appropriate education for children.
He also outlined several educational priorities that he would work to implement if he became president, most notably introducing prayer into public schools, teaching children to love their country, and increasing internship opportunities for students.
During his presidency (2016/2020), the Trump administration proposed merging the Departments of Education and Labor into a single federal agency as part of a larger plan to restructure the government.
But Trump’s plan failed during his first term because the proposals required unanimous approval from the House and Senate, which is indicative of the political challenges that will face any new attempts to reduce the federal government’s role in education.
When presidents in the past have proposed cutting the Education Department’s budget, Congress has opposed it and allocated about 71% more funding than the president requested, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institution.
Even when the first Trump administration proposed cutting the department’s budget, the Republican-controlled Congress ultimately increased funding.
The late Republican President Ronald Reagan had called for the department to be abolished just one year after it began operating, in 1980, but backed down when it became clear that there was not enough support in Congress.

While Trump has denied that his stance on the Department of Education is related to Project 2025, which the right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation has drafted as a comprehensive guide for future conservative presidents, Heritage’s manifesto outlines how the federal Department of Education could be dismantled and turned into a statistics-gathering agency.
Project 2025 proposes various ways to put states in control of programs that are now funded and administered by the federal government.
Rather than the department directing how the money is used, Heritage wants to give states unrestricted federal money to spend on any educational purpose under state law.
According to observers, getting rid of the Department of Education is a great idea for most Republicans who view this issue as part of the long-running culture war between the conservative right, whose identity is based on the Christian faith, and the liberal left, which does not give religion much weight when shaping its policies.
In turn, journalist Halim Rahal told Al-Estiklal that Republicans have long called for the abolishment of the Department of Education, accusing it of promoting a leftist ideology that is inconsistent with the values they promote, especially those related to race and gender.
“Conservatives aspire to transfer the tasks of the Department of Education, such as managing loans, to the US Treasury Department, while they see civil rights issues as the responsibility of the Department of Justice,” he added.
Mr. Rahal pointed out that “Trump and his allies want to expand educational options for Americans, allowing students and families to choose alternatives to public schools.”
Finally, he expected that the Department of Education will remain, indicating that Republicans will use it to enact a comprehensive educational agenda.
Sources
- What the next Trump presidency could mean for US education
- Could Trump actually get rid of the Department of Education?
- Trump wants to shut down the Department of Education. Here’s what that could mean
- Trump’s Road Map for Taking ‘Woke’ Out of American Education
- What Parents Should Know About Trump's Plan to Dismantle Dept. of Education