Former Trump Education Secretary Calls For Department To Be Shuttered As Cutting Spree Looks For Next Target

President Donald Trump and his allies — including his former Education secretary — have publicly zeroed in on the Education Department as a potential next target for his cutting spree, an action the president vowed to accomplish on the campaign trail and one Republicans have been calling for for decades.

The Trump administration and its backers have suggested the department has evolved into a weapon wielded by progressives to enforce “woke” education policies and is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Trump has mused about allocating the department’s funding to the states.

On Thursday, the push got a notable endorsement from Betsy DeVos, Trump’s secretary of Education in his first term, who wrote in an op-ed for The Free Press that the department should be scrapped entirely.

“Nothing could be more important to our success as a nation than having well-educated citizens,” DeVos wrote. “But don’t be fooled by the name: the Department of Education has almost nothing to do with actually educating anyone.”

The Trump administration has also hinted at plans to sign an executive order aimed at shuttering the Department of Education this month. The order could request that the department wind down its functions and delegate powers to other agencies, POLITICO previously reported, with some supporters conceding there may not be legislative support to shutter the agency entirely.

“When it comes to the Department of Education, the president and the policy team continue to look at options and how to reduce the size of the Department of Education, if not abolish it completely,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News on Thursday.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency also seems to have its sights set on the Education Department. DOGE representatives have been seen working at the department’s headquarters this week seeking access to information systems and agency records.

On Thursday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from implementing its “deferred resignation” program for federal employees until Monday. The program had Education Department employees on edge, wondering whether to take the offer — which was supposed to expire Thursday evening — or risk being laid off as a result of staff reduction efforts. Dozens of Education Department staffers were also recently put on leave for attending a DEI training program.

The renewed campaign to shutter the department is fueled, in part, by dissatisfaction with the country’s most recent report card. The National Assessment of Educational Progress recently found that K-12 students are falling drastically behind in reading and only making minor improvements in math.

“The current system located in Washington, D.C., is not working,” Leavitt said. “The president is committed to ensuring states and parents have a greater say in their children’s education system.”