President Donald Trump’s Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the 43-day government shutdown “proved just how little the Department of Education will be missed.”
USA Today ran an op-ed from McMahon on Sunday, in which she doubled down on President Trump’s campaign promise to shutter the department and send more power back to states and local communities. Trump has quipped that he wants McMahon “to put herself out of a job,” and he signed an executive order in March calling for the dismantling of the department. However, officially ending the department would take an act of Congress as it was Congress that created it 45 years ago under President Jimmy Carter.
“Our nation just experienced the longest government shutdown in its history. The 43-day shutdown, which came smack in the middle of the fall semester, showed every family how unnecessary the federal education bureaucracy is to their children’s education. Students kept going to class. Teachers continued to get paid. There were no disruptions in sports seasons or bus routes,” McMahon wrote.
“The shutdown proved an argument that conservatives have been making for 45 years: The U.S. Department of Education is mostly a pass-through for funds that are best managed by the states,” she continued. “That’s why, now that the government shutdown is over, we are emboldened to fulfill President Donald Trump’s promise to return education to the states.”
McMahon emphasized that ending the department “does not mean the end of federal support for education,” as Democrats and left-wing teachers unions often claim.
“It simply means the end of a centralized bureaucracy micromanaging what should be a state-led responsibility,” she wrote. “Funding for low-income students and students with disabilities predates the Education Department and will continue indefinitely. Protecting students’ civil rights is work that will never go away. These critical functions are required by law and will continue — even if the building where they are housed does not have ‘Education’ on the door.”
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McMahon went on to detail how the department is working with other agencies to streamline functions, as well as promoting career skills, school choice, and enforcing federal discrimination laws at colleges.
“This administration is aggressively reducing and reforming the federal education bureaucracy to prove that there is a smarter way to deliver quality education at every level,” she wrote. “Our reforms are more than a proof of concept; they are the first step toward congressional legislation that will make these changes permanent.”
“The Schumer shutdown underlined just how little the Department of Education will be missed,” she continued. “As such, the Trump administration will work to end federal micromanagement of our schools and empower state and local leaders to create high-quality education programs that lead to a rewarding career. We know that the stakes could not be higher.”
In April, Senate Republicans formally introduced a bill that would eliminate the Department of Education in line with President Trump’s executive order. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP).
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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