Ledger · 2024 campaign · № 180
Abolish the Department of Education
Still waiting“We're going to be returning education back to the states where it belongs.”
- Promised
- , Agenda 47 education video and repeated campaign rallies
- Re-promised
- 20 times with a fresh deadline
- Topic
- Education
- Era
- 2024 campaign
What happened
A March 2025 executive order directed Secretary Linda McMahon to wind the department down and cut nearly half of its 4,100-person workforce, with more layoffs in October 2025 and grant programs shifted to six other agencies by December 2025. But only Congress can abolish it and a Senate filibuster makes that impossible with the current majority; Reason reported in February 2026 that Trump's own bill funded the department at $79 billion and barred parts of it from being downsized or decentralized. The department still exists in September 2026.