The days of the bloated, bureaucratic Department of Education may be numbered. Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has unveiled a bold three-step plan to shut down the agency for good, calling it a complete failure that has wasted over $1 trillion since its creation in 1979.
Trump Moves to End Federal-Managed Education
DeVos, who served under President Donald Trump’s first administration, laid out her plan in an op-ed, stating that the Department of Education has done nothing to improve student performance and has instead burdened schools with political agendas and unnecessary bureaucracy.
Trump has long vowed to eliminate the department, and with his second term in full swing, momentum is growing to finally strip Washington of its grip on America’s schools.
Failing Students And Radical Agendas
The 2024 Nation’s Report Card exposed just how disastrous the education system has become under federal oversight. Nearly 40% of fourth graders can’t read at grade level, and the gap between the highest and lowest-performing students is wider than ever.
DeVos didn’t hold back in her criticism of the department, stating:
“The Department of Education does not run a single school. It does not employ a single teacher. It doesn’t even fund most of K-12 education. So what does it do? It shuffles money around, adds unnecessary regulations, and pushes political agendas.”
Under former President Joe Biden, the agency poured taxpayer dollars into diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, critical race theory, and gender ideology, while student performance continued to crater.
Trump has already started stripping these radical concepts from schools, ensuring that education is about learning—not leftist indoctrination.
The Plan to Shut It Down
DeVos’ three-step blueprint for dismantling the Department of Education is simple but powerful:
- Send all federal education funds directly to schools through a universal school choice program, cutting half of the department’s responsibilities overnight.
- Shift civil rights enforcement to the Department of Justice, eliminating another key function of the department.
- Privatize the student loan system, removing the last major excuse for the department’s existence.
Once these steps are taken, DeVos argues, there will be no reason for the Department of Education to exist.
The End of Federal Overreach in Schools?
DeVos acknowledged that no federal agency has ever been successfully abolished but said it’s time to make history.
“On the merits, the Department of Education has earned such a historic distinction.”
With Trump fully backing the effort, the fight to restore local control over education and eliminate Washington’s stranglehold on America’s schools is just getting started.
