2/3 of Americans Say Hands Off the Department of Education

On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at shutting down the Department of Education. The order titled “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities” instructs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling her agency and return the authority over education to the states. This doesn’t come as a surprise, as shutting down the Department of Education was one of Trump’s campaign promises and he previously said that he had nominated McMahon to “put herself out of a job”.

McMahon herself was also aware of her task, as her first act as Secretary was outlining the department’s “final mission”. In a speech given on March 3, right after her confirmation, Secretary McMahon hit all of Trump’s talking points with respect to education, talking about returning power to the states and parents, removing red tape and eliminating “gender ideology”, “anti-American ideology” and DEI. While stopping just short of mentioning the outright elimination of the Department of Education, her repeated use of the word “final” made clear that she sees no future for the department she was just tasked with leading. “This is our opportunity to perform one final, unforgettable public service to future generations of students,” she addressed her new staff. “I hope you will join me in ensuring that when our final mission is complete, we will all be able to say that we left American education freer, stronger, and with more hope for the future.”

Earlier this week, democratic senators had addressed Secretary McMahon in a letter, urging her to stop the already apparent dismantling of the Department of Education. “At a time of massive income and wealth inequality, it is a national disgrace that the Trump Administration is attempting to illegally abolish the Department of Education and thus, undermine a high-quality education for our students," the letter signed by 38 senators said.

According to a recent survey conducted by YouGov and The Economist, the majority of Americans is also opposed to closing the Department of Education. Two thirds of respondents in the survey fielded March 16-18 said that the department should either be expanded (39 percent) or kept the same (27 percent). At the other end of the scale, 13 percent of respondents said that the department should be reduced, while 17 percent called for its outright elimination. This is another example of the Trump administration and the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) seemingly overstepping their mandate. According to the same survey, 46 percent of U.S. adults think that Trump’s cuts to federal agencies have gone too far, while 25 percent think the efforts have been about right and 17 percent think they haven’t gone far enough. Funnily enough, 34 percent of respondents think that DOGE itself should be eliminated – the highest share for any federal agency mentioned in the survey.