The GOP is set to clean house. And it isn’t going to be pretty for everyone.
Now the D.C. Swamp is freaking out after Republicans moved to abolish this agency.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) took a bold step Thursday in introducing legislation to abolish the Department of Education, delivering on a long-held Republican vision and aligning with President-elect Donald Trump’s commitment to overhaul the federal role in education.
The bill, aptly named the “Returning Education to Our States Act,” seeks to transfer key functions of the Department of Education to other federal agencies, restoring control over education policy to state and local governments.
Rounds emphasized that local communities—not distant Washington bureaucrats—are best equipped to make decisions for their students.
“The federal Department of Education has never educated a single student, and it’s long past time to end this bureaucratic department that causes more harm than good,” Rounds said in a statement.
“We all know local control is best when it comes to education. Everyone raised in South Dakota can think of a teacher who played a big part in their educational journey. Local school boards and state Departments of Education know best what their students need, not unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.”
Created under President Jimmy Carter in 1979, the Department of Education centralized federal influence in a way many conservatives view as detrimental to student success. Rounds’ bill proposes reverting to a pre-1979 system, decentralizing education programs and placing them in agencies better suited to manage them:
- Disability programs would transfer to the Department of Health and Human Services.
- Career training initiatives would shift to the Department of Labor.
- International research and training programs would fall under the State Department.
- Student loans and grants would become the responsibility of the Department of the Treasury.
- American Indian education programs would move to the Department of the Interior.
President-elect Trump campaigned on a promise to “drain the government education swamp” and put an end to taxpayer dollars being used to promote ideological agendas in schools.
Earlier this week, he named Linda McMahon as his choice for Secretary of Education, highlighting her focus on school choice and parental rights.
“As a strong supporter of school choice and parental rights, there is no one better to expel the woke agenda in our education system and put our children first,” Trump said of McMahon.
Republicans have long advocated for the elimination of the Department of Education, a pledge first championed by President Ronald Reagan.
With unified Republican control of the House, Senate, and White House come January, Rounds’ legislation has its best chance yet of becoming law.
“For years, I’ve worked toward removing the federal Department of Education,” Rounds said.
“I’m pleased that President-elect Trump shares this vision, and I’m excited to work with him and Republican majorities in the Senate and House to make this a reality. This legislation is a roadmap to eliminating the federal Department of Education by practically rehoming these federal programs in the departments where they belong, which will be critical as we move into next year.”
While Democrats are unlikely to back the measure in the current Senate, Republicans remain optimistic that this long-overdue reform is on the horizon.
The push to end the Department of Education is more than a symbolic gesture—it’s a commitment to returning education to the hands of parents, teachers, and local communities, where it belongs.
Stay tuned to Prudent Politics.
