President Donald Trump has long said that the Department of Education is a bloated bureaucracy that drains taxpayer dollars while producing little measurable improvement in America’s classrooms.
This week, that promise to shrink Washington’s footprint in education took another step forward when the Department of Education laid off nearly 460 employees, cutting roughly a fifth of its workforce.
The most significant reductions came from the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and from staff tied to the TRIO college access program.
Critics, including the teachers unions, immediately claimed the layoffs would “harm students.”
But the reality is the opposite. For decades, Washington has grown into a sprawling, inefficient machine that spends billions on oversight and compliance while leaving states, districts, and families to deal with endless red tape.
President Trump is confronting a fundamental truth: education works best when power rests with parents, local schools, and states, not unaccountable bureaucrats in D.C.
The president’s executive order to begin phasing out the Department altogether is part of a broader strategy to return authority where it belongs.
Republicans have long argued that the federal government has overstepped its role in education, dictating rules and mandates that cost schools money but do little to help students.
By streamlining federal involvement, Trump is ensuring that resources flow directly to the classroom, not to offices stacked with political appointees and lifetime administrators.