The Trump administration just took a major step toward something conservatives have talked about for decades, dialing back Washington’s grip on America’s classrooms. Instead of tinkering around the edges, the Department of Education is being carved up piece by piece, with key functions shifted to agencies that actually deal with the relevant issues. It is the first real signal that President Trump plans to follow through on his promise to eventually scrap the department altogether.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon laid out the vision during an appearance on Fox News, explaining how the new structure will work and pointing out that the recent shutdown proved schools don’t grind to a halt when federal bureaucrats are sent home. It is hard to argue with her on that one. The country got a real time reminder that students learn and teachers teach without someone in Washington hovering over them.
The department’s press release broke down the details. There are six new interagency agreements with the Departments of Labor, Interior, Health and Human Services, and State. The idea is simple, hand off federal programs to the agencies that already have the expertise instead of pretending the Department of Education needs to micromanage everything from job training to tribal schools. According to the release, these agreements will “break up the federal education bureaucracy, ensure efficient delivery of funded programs, activities, and move closer to fulfilling the President’s promise to return education to the states.”
McMahon was blunt about the mission. “The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” she said. She talked about cutting red tape, gathering best practices from her 50 state tour, empowering local leaders, restoring excellence in higher education, and working with Congress to lock these reforms into law. Her pitch was straightforward, make education about students, families, and schools rather than government administrators.
The White House backed her up immediately. Spokeswoman Liz Huston told Fox News Digital that this is exactly what President Trump promised. “President Trump promised the American people he would dismantle the Department of Education. Today, Secretary McMahon is delivering on that promise with bold, decisive action to return education where it belongs, at the state and local level,” she said. Huston added that the shutdown highlighted what many parents already know, “students and teachers don’t need Washington bureaucrats micromanaging their classrooms.”
For anyone tired of watching federal agencies balloon while student performance flatlines, this is a long overdue course correction. Kids are best served when decisions happen close to home, not handed down from some distant office full of career administrators who rarely set foot inside a public school.
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