In a 2023 video outlining his education policy, President Trump said, “One of the things I’m going to do very early on in my administration is close down the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., “The idea is to bring all the business back to the state.” the goal. “We want them to run our children’s education because they will do a better job. We can’t do any worse.”
It won’t be easy for President Trump to shut down the department, but it’s not impossible. Even if the Department of Energy remains open, there are certainly ways for President Trump to fundamentally change education in the United States. Here’s what’s possible:
Can President Trump really shut down the DOE?
But “it would take an act of Congress to repeal it,” Don Kettle, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland and former dean of the School of Public Policy, told Box. “A fundamental restructuring would require an act of Congress. So the question is whether there is an appetite on the Hill to abolish the department.”
Even though Republicans are expected to narrowly control the House and Senate, it’s not an easy prospect. That’s because, Jal Mehta, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, told Box, abolishing the department would “require 60 votes unless Republicans abolish the filibuster.”
Without the filibuster rule, which would require a simple majority to pass legislation, senators have balked in recent years about doing away with the rule. If the filibuster were implemented, Republicans would need to get some Democratic senators to join them in their effort to kill the department. It is highly unlikely that Democratic senators would support such a move.
That means the push to shrink the sector is likely largely symbolic. And that’s the best-case scenario, John Vallant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, told Box. Valant said dismantling it would damage the U.S. education system and undermine President Trump’s goals.
Closing the department “will cause havoc across the country,” Vallant said. “It’s going to cause a lot of pain. It’s going to cause a lot of pain in some parts of the country that are represented by Republicans in Congress.”
Much of the pain will likely fall on the nation’s most vulnerable students: poor students, students in rural areas, and students with disabilities. That’s because the department’s civil rights authority helps state education systems provide specialized resources to these students.
Moreover, many of the things that President Trump and MAGA activists claim the agency is responsible for, such as teaching critical race theory and LGBTQ “ideology,” are not actually within the DOE’s purview. Curriculum and teacher selection are already under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Education. And only about 10% of federal public education funding flows to state school boards, Valant said. States and local school districts already control much of the funding structure of a given public education system, as the remainder primarily comes from taxes.
“It’s a little perplexing that the U.S. Department of Education has become such a lightning rod here, in part because I don’t know how many people know what the department actually does. Because there isn’t,” Valant said.
Even without literally closing the door on federal agencies, the Trump administration could hollow out the Department of Energy and do significant damage, Valant and Kettle said.
The regime may require agencies to reduce the roles of agency employees, particularly those who ideologically oppose the regime. It would also appoint staff with limited (or no) education expertise, potentially disrupting the department’s day-to-day operations.
Trump officials may also try to change the department’s higher education practices. For example, the department is one of several state and non-governmental agencies involved in university accreditation. And House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) is threatening to weaponize the accreditation process against universities he considers too “woke.”
Finally, President Trump could use the department’s leadership role to indirectly influence policy, citing the teaching in schools that “power comes from simply telling the states what you want.” said Valant. “And there are many state leaders around the country who seem ready to follow that lead.”
Mr. Trump’s plans for the department will become clearer once his administration names an education secretary. Once that person is confirmed, Kettle said, “they’ll be back in the race on this issue.”
