The Department of Education is the red-headed stepchild of the U.S. government. Republicans have been beating on it like a carrot-top kid since President Carter rammed its creation through Congress in October 1979.
When Donald Trump was elected to a second term in 2024, most Republicans believed the department's days were numbered. Indeed, his choice of Linda McMahon as secretary of education seemed to indicate his desire to close the department. McMahon wrote to the staff of her "final mission" for the agency. She invited staff to participate in "one final, unforgettable public service" by completing this mission and leaving the American education system "freer" and "stronger."
"I told Linda, 'Linda, I hope you do a great job in putting yourself out of a job.' I want her to put herself out of a job," Trump said at one point.
A year later, Congress passed a Department of Education budget exceeding $79 billion, a $200 million increase from 2025, and "it is $12 billion more than the Trump administration requested in its budget proposal for the year," according to Reason.com's Eric Boehm.
There are several reasons for this. Trump may have signed an executive order last March that abolished the department, but only Congress has the authority to officially abolish a federal department established by law. Despite a solid majority of Republicans being in favor of abolishing the department, the effort still falls short of a majority.
Democrats inserted language into the omnibus funding bill that reopened the government on February 3, making the Education Department nearly impossible to eliminate.
"None of the funds provided by this Act…may be used for any activity relating to implementing a reorganization that decentralizes, reduces the staffing level, or alters the responsibilities, structure, authority, or function" of the Education Department's budget office, the law reads.
"My key takeaway is that Congress rejected virtually everything that the president requested," said Sarah Abernathy, the executive director of the nonprofit Committee for Education Funding.
The act also mandates that the department "shall support staffing levels necessary to fulfill its statutory responsibilities including carrying out programs, projects, and activities" funded by Congress.
Elsewhere, it also stipulates that "none of the funds made available in this Act may be transferred to any department, agency, or instrumentality" other than the ones indicated by the appropriations. That would seem to preempt the Trump administration's efforts to offload Education Department programs to other parts of the government.
None of that sounds like abolishing the Department of Education or returning its duties to the states. Indeed, even the attempt to shuffle the department's responsibilities to other parts of the federal government may now be stymied.
McMahon tried an end-around on Democrats who were trying to prevent her from cutting staff. The secretary began assigning employees to other departments through "interagency agreements," which sent some staff to the Labor Department, HHS, and the Interior Department. Republicans blocked an effort by Democrats in the omnibus bill to end those agreements, but the Democrats managed to prevent the department's decommissioning at least for now.
Why is ending the Education Department such a hassle? There are $79 billion reasons, and each of those reasons has a constituency. Also, the teachers' unions are very powerful.
But the biggest reason that the Education Department is likely continue to be funded is the simple fact that the funding touches almost every city, town, village, hamlet, and crossroads in America. Americans may not like "interference" from Washington, but they sure do like the dollars. This is especially true for specialized instruction, such as programs for people with disabilities, immigrants, adult education, and a host of initiatives from both parties that have become necessary in a 21st-century industrialized democracy. States can run some of these programs, but the rationale for creating a national education department was that many states were failing to care for these students.
A lot has changed in 50 years. Attitudes toward these programs have also changed. This argument can be used if a bill to abolish the Education Department ever reaches the floor of Congress.
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