Trump is right to eradicate the Department of Education

Teachers’ unions have donated millions upon millions over the years almost exclusively to Democratic candidates and left-wing organizations. So it’s no wonder Dems, realizing their cash cow could be on the verge of drying up, are losing their minds over President Trump signing an executive order yesterday to begin eradicating the Department of Education. If Americans get a real taste of school choice (Trump still needs a Congressional vote to end the agency), the left knows there will be no going back.

Senator Chuck Schumer called the order “one of the most destructive and devastating steps Donald Trump has ever taken.” Senator Elizabeth Warren called Trump’s efforts a “code red for every public-school student, parent and teacher in this country [who will] pay a heavy price.”

But what do the students, parents and teachers themselves think? According to polling, they overwhelming want exactly what Trump is touting: “returning authority over education to the states and local communities.”

The New York Post reported on a Noble Predictive Insights survey conducted last year that found, “over two-thirds of the more than 2,200 likely voters polled support giving families choices using public funds.” EdChoice.org found, “About two-thirds of Americans support school vouchers, charter schools and tax-credit scholarships. Support for Education Savings Accounts [ESAs] is much higher at 76 percent.”

There’s a reason Trump used school choice as a campaign pitch during his 2024 run. Recall that Glenn Youngkin, too, made the policy a top campaign priority during his 2021 campaign for governor of Virginia, and was duly elected. He announced yesterday immediately after the president issued his executive order that his state is ready to take “full responsibility for K-12 education.”

The growing support for education choice is the result of numerous federal-level failures school choice has proven successful at correcting. For one thing, as Trump noted in his pre-executive-order-signing speech, our public-school performance is abysmal. Despite America spending the most amount of money per pupil, we rank “near the bottom of the list” academically when compared to peer nations. 

“Today, American reading and math scores are near historical lows,” Trump said. “This year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that 70 percent of eighth graders were below proficient in reading, and 72 percent were below proficient in math.”

States that have empowered families to make educational decisions, rather than forcing them into a broken, one-size-fits-none system, are proving how amazingly well school choice works, for everyone. Mountain States Policy Center reported in 2024:

As of March 2023, there have been nearly 190 studies on the impact of education choice. Researchers have looked at fiscal effects, parent satisfaction, test scores, attainment, civic values, school safety and racial integration.

Remarkably, 84 percent of studies show a positive effect, 10 percent show no impact and 6 percent show a negative result.

Those these data and studies and surveys are useful in showing the value of education choice, the argument for why parents should be in charge of their own children’s learning is obvious. The fact that the more families have access to choice, the more they want it (school choice programs are spreading like wildfire) further evinces the need to end, as Trump phrased it, “the experiment of controlling American education through federal programs and dollars – and the unaccountable bureaucracy those programs and dollars support.”

Education choice makes sense, it’s popular because it works, saves taxpayers money, satisfies families and teachers, improves public schools and results in a more robust nation overall. So when you hear someone squawking about how horrible dismantling the Education Department will be, follow the money, and you will see plainly that doing so is only “destructive and devastating” and a “code red” if you’re a politician reliant on a bloated, corrupt bureaucracy to stay in power.