No, DOGE Is Not Defunding Schools: Eliminating the Department of Education Is the Right Move
On March 20, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education and returning control over education to states, parents, and local communities. Contrary to what headlines and Democrat politicians are claiming, this move does not amount to defunding schools.
It’s not an attack on education — it’s an attack on a bloated, unaccountable bureaucracy that has failed its core mission.
The Department of Education was created in 1979 after heavy lobbying from the teachers’ union. Despite decades of federal oversight and massive spending, educational outcomes have only gotten worse.
During the COVID-19 pandemic alone, the federal government poured hundreds of billions into schools that were not even open. Last year, total education-related federal spending reached $268 billion. And what did taxpayers get in return? Some of the worst academic performance in modern history.
According to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, 70% of 8th graders are below proficiency in reading, and 72% are below proficiency in math. These numbers aren’t just disappointing — they’re damning. The federal education bureaucracy is not working.
me federal funds, and generate data. It also maintains a PR office with more than 80 employees and a $10 million budget — again, without directly impacting a single classroom. Meanwhile, it manages a $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio despite having fewer than 1,500 employees in its Office of Federal Student Aid — a structure more akin to a struggling bank than a functioning government agency.
Critics claim that eliminating the Department is a sign of authoritarianism, even comparing it to historical dictatorships that feared educated populations. But this is political theater, not reality.
Trump’s executive order emphasizes that services and funding must continue without interruption. The real goal is decentralization: shifting authority from Washington back to states and local communities, where education can be tailored to the actual needs of students.
It’s important to understand that dismantling the Department of Education does not mean cutting federal education funding. Roughly 90% of public school funding already comes from state and local governments. And the Department’s operating budget — the money that runs the bureaucracy — is entirely separate from the funds that go to schools and students.
Theoretically, all funding for the Department as an administrative entity could be eliminated without cutting a single dollar of aid to schools. Programs like Title I and IDEA could still be fully funded and administered through alternative channels, such as block grants to states.
In short, the existence of a federal education bureaucracy and the provision of federal education dollars are two completely different issues. Eliminating the former doesn’t require eliminating the latter. It’s time to separate myth from reality — and to stop defending a broken system just because it’s been around for a few decades.
The other major force behind the collapse of public education in recent years has been the teachers’ union. Far from merely advocating for fair wages and improved working conditions, today’s unions — especially the NEA and AFT — have transformed into highly politicized activist arms of the Democratic Party. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these unions fought to keep schools closed long after data and international precedent proved it was safe to return.
In cities with strong union influence, schools stayed closed the longest — despite mounting evidence that remote learning was ineffective and devastating to children’s mental and emotional well-being. While essential workers showed up in person every day, unionized teachers remained home, refusing to return to classrooms even as they demanded early access to vaccines and priority treatment.
This prolonged shutdown caused irreversible harm. National learning setbacks are now measured in years, not months. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 70% of 8th graders are now below proficiency in reading and 72% in math — the worst scores in decades.
But even more alarming, there is no plan in place to recover what was lost. Teachers’ unions, the very institutions responsible for inflicting this damage, have offered no real roadmap for learning recovery. Instead, they continue pushing ideological agendas — demanding things like “Climate Justice Days,” reparations, and housing for homeless families — while ignoring their basic mission to educate children.
For many parents, the union’s betrayal during the pandemic was the final straw, fueling an explosion in support for school choice, charter schools, and homeschooling. Public education may never recover — and if it doesn’t, the unions will have only themselves to blame.
