Headline Roundup • November 15th, 2024
What Will Trump Do With the Department of Education?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
President-elect Donald Trump reportedly plans drastic changes to the Department of Education (DOE) once he’s back in the White House, including possibly shuttering it entirely and leaving states to administrate education.
The Details: Trump has repeatedly stated his intentions to dismantle or greatly reform the DOE, but has yet to announce either an education secretary or an official plan. While Trump has released proposals in Agenda 47, Project 2025 includes some education-related proposals leading there to be no clear course of action.
Assumptions From the Left: Left-wing media and critics, such as the New York Times (Lean Left bias), quickly pointed to Project 2025, and while recognizing that Trump has distanced himself from the conservative plan, stated “many of its architects were close to his campaign,” alluding to the plausibility that plans therein may be carried out. Other outlets on the left suggested that part of the reasoning for dismantling the DOE is stopping its “woke” practices.
Assumptions From the Right: Sources from the right including Fox News (Right bias) highlighted the advantages of giving power back to the states while expounding several issues and concerns over such things as standardized testing and the belief that “funding pressures keep pushing Washington to influence school operations.”
Common Ground: People from either side of the aisle have several opposing assumptions about what Trump plans to do. However, both sides agree that block granting, a way to temporarily continue the flow of funds to states without less barriers on how they may be used, might be the most plausible path for Trump’s intended goals.
Featured Coverage of this Story
Kenny Holston for The New York Times
On the campaign trail, Donald J. Trump depicted the nation’s public schools as purveyors of an extreme ideology on gender and race. One of his proposed remedies has been to revive a Reagan-era call to shut down the federal Department of Education, founded in 1979.
“We will move everything back to the states, where it belongs,” he said in one speech. “They can individualize education and do it with the love for their children.”
Democrats have vowed to resist the effort.
But is shuttering the department possible? And if not,...
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
President-Elect Donald Trump has proposed a dramatic shakeup in American education: "disbanding" or drastically reducing the power of the Department of Education (DOE), a move that would shift control and funding of public schools back to local communities.
While Trump's specific plan and choice of secretary have yet to be announced, Neal McCluskey, the director for educational freedom at libertarian think tank Cato Institute, said there's a high likelihood Trump's agenda of shuttering the DOE could be carried out through "block granting."
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