For decades, Americans have watched as Washington bureaucrats gained more control over our children’s education. Federal mandates, national standards, and one-size-fits-all policies have steadily eroded local authority and parental rights.

Year after year, taxpayer dollars flow to the Department of Education while student performance stagnates. When was the last time a federal mandate actually improved your child’s education? Teachers struggle under mountains of paperwork and administrative requirements that have little to do with actual learning.

All the while, parents have had less and less say in their children’s education.

President Donald Trump is now taking decisive action to fulfill one of his key campaign promises. Indeed, he’s seemingly moving towards dismantling the Department of Education. This move would return educational authority to states, communities, and most importantly, parents.

Trump Takes Historic Step to Restore Educational Freedom

White House officials have prepared an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin the process of dismantling the department. Trump has signaled this intention throughout his campaign, but now the administration is moving forward with concrete steps.

The draft order instructs McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Education Department” while operating to “the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.”

“The experiment of controlling American education through Federal programs and dollars—and the unaccountable bureaucrats those programs and dollars support—has failed our children, our teachers, and our families,” the draft order reads.

Hours after being confirmed, McMahon sent a message to her staff titled “Our Department’s Final Mission.” In it, she invited employees to “join us in this historic final mission on behalf of all students.” She noted that the agency has received $1 trillion in federal funding since its establishment in 1979. Despite this, student outcomes have “languished.”

Let’s be honest – that’s a trillion dollars with virtually nothing to show for it!

Liberals Panic as Educational Control Returns to Communities

Democrats are, predictably, melting down over this move. Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Philadelphia-area Democrat, claimed the move threatens an “educated electorate” – implying that Americans somehow can’t be properly educated without federal oversight. (No surprise there!)

What Democrats conveniently forget – or hope you won’t remember – is that America’s education system functioned for over 200 years without a federal Department of Education. The department was only created in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter – a political favor to teachers’ unions that supported his election.

Some congressional Republicans have expressed procedural concerns. Maine Sen. Susan Collins noted that “only Congress can make” the decision to fully abolish the department. However, this executive order begins the process while working within existing legal frameworks.

A Return to Educational Excellence

Under McMahon’s leadership, the department will operate on three key principles: parents as primary decision makers; education focused on math, reading, science and history; and postsecondary education that prepares students for well-paying careers.

These principles represent a return to educational fundamentals that made American education the envy of the world before federal bureaucracy took over.

Without the Department of Education, states and local communities will regain control over curriculum, standards, and educational priorities. Teachers will face less paperwork and more freedom to actually teach. Parents will have greater influence over their children’s education – as any parent with common sense already knows they should.

Critical programs that help students with disabilities and those from low-income families won’t disappear – they existed before the department was created and can be administered through other agencies or directly to states.

The real change will be eliminating what Trump called the “government education swamp” that has been “indoctrinating America’s youth with all sorts of things that you don’t want to have our youth hearing.” Isn’t it time we admitted the Department of Education experiment has failed?

Key Takeaways:

• Trump’s executive order begins dismantling a department that spent $1 trillion with declining results.
• Education decisions will return to parents, teachers, and local communities where they belong.
• Critical programs for disadvantaged students will continue through other channels.
• America’s education system thrived for 200+ years before federal control began in 1979.

Source: CNN