By Melanie Kurdys for AMERICAN THINKER
During both his 2016 and 2024 campaigns and in his March 2025 Executive Order, President Trump called for shutting down the Department of Education and returning control to the states. Recent legislation voted out of the House Education and Workforce Committee makes no effort to return control to the states. In fact, the legislation will bury the federal education programs deep within the bureaucracy of five other agencies. This effort is worse than having done nothing at all.
In late July, the House Education and Workforce Committee, led by Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI), passed a set of 10 bills (H.R. 9602-9611) designed to move programs from the Department of Education to other departments, including Labor, Health & Human Services, Treasury, Interior, and State, wholly intact with the same people, the same funding, and the same ineffective rules and regulations.
Heritage Acting Director of the Center for Education Policy Jonathan Butcher recently wrote an Issue Brief in support of these bills, claiming this will “right-size” the Department of Education before closure. He explains:
“These bills would allow… federal programs to continue under other agencies. Instead of eliminating programs, these agreements have allowed federally authorized services to continue…”
But this is not what President Trump promised. The Executive Order that President Trump issued stated this purpose:
“Section 1. Purpose and Policy. Our Nation’s bright future relies on empowered families, engaged communities, and excellent educational opportunities for every child. Unfortunately, the experiment of controlling American education through Federal programs and dollars — and the unaccountable bureaucracy those programs and dollars support — has plainly failed our children, our teachers, and our families”
