Today’s column is about shutting down the Department of Education. But I’m not going to explain why that should happen since I have already done that (once in 2015 and twice (here and here) in 2022).
Instead I’m going to explain how it should happen.
Let’s begin by looking at where things stand in Washington.
As reported by Laura Meckler of the Washington Post, President Trump is seeking to eliminate the department and just issued an executive order to facilitate that long-overdue goal.
Here are some excerpts.
President Donald Trump is set to sign a much-anticipated executive order Thursday aimed at closing the Education Department, the White House said, though administration officials have acknowledged that shuttering the agency would require congressional approval. …the executive order will direct Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps” to facilitate the closure of the department “and return education authority to the States.” …Already, the agency has reduced its workforce by nearly half, mostly through layoffs, and worked to cancel dozens of grants and contracts. …The executive order also will repeat the administration’s directive that no program that advances diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) or “gender ideology” receive Education Department funding.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that Trump and his Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, apparently have no intention of actually reducing federal government spending and intervention.
McMahon suggested moving some functions to other government agencies, a decision experts say would also require congressional approval. …McMahon suggested moving some functions to other government agencies, a decision experts say would also require congressional approval. …The Education Department administers federal grant programs, including the $18.4 billion Title I program that provides supplemental funding to high-poverty K-12 schools, as well as the $15.5 billion IDEA program that helps cover the cost of education for students with disabilities. And the department oversees the $1.6 trillion federal student loan program… A senior administration official said Wednesday that these programs, which make up the bulk of the Education Department’s budget and work, “will NOT be touched.”
In other words, even though the federal government is far too big, Washington will continue to drain money from the private sector, continue to fund an education bureaucracy (albeit placed in a different department), and continue to send money to politicians and bureaucrats at the state and local level.
At the risk of understatement, I’m underwhelmed. This is not as disappointing as Trump’s decision to stick his head in the sand about America’s entitlement crisis, but it’s yet another piece of evidence that America needs a return to Reaganism.
Dan Mitchell is co-founder of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity and Chairman of the Board. He is an expert in international tax competition and supply-side tax policy.
