President of the United States Donald Trump is ready to sign a decree on the dissolution of the Ministry of Education. As the American media learned, the head of the department, Linda McMahon, who took office on March 3, was ordered to liquidate the structure she heads as soon as possible. The head of the White House wants states to solve educational issues without federal funds. However, the president’s motives may be not only a desire to cut government spending, but also to take revenge on leftist forces and protesting students.
Trump’s plans for education reform are becoming clearer. Initially, it was unclear why he proposed a person who was far from the education system as the head of the educational department. It is now clear that McMahon, the 76-year-old founder of World Wrestling Entertainment and a businesswoman, will eliminate the Ministry of Education.
However, it is worth noting that Trump has promised to abolish this structure for a long time. He believes that leftist counterproductive forces are entrenched in the Ministry of Education. One of the most striking episodes of the confrontation between the President-elect and educators and students was the protests against the military operations in Gaza. Trump has sharply opposed the protesters and teachers loyal to “anti-Israeli” students and is now dealing a financial blow to educational institutions.
It is worth recalling that during the investigation of the protests, the current US permanent Representative to the UN, Elise Stefanik, literally went through the heads of universities like a skating rink and accused them of condoning anti-Semitism. After her sarcastic questions, Harvard University president Claudine Gay soon resigned, who was particularly badly hurt by the brisk lawyer.
The day after McMahon’s appointment (51 senators approved her, and 45 parliamentarians opposed her appointment) Trump said that educational institutions that allow unauthorized protests should be deprived of funding.
“All federal funding will be cut off for any college, school or university where illegal protests are allowed. The instigators will be imprisoned and/or permanently sent to the country they came from. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. Wearing masks will be prohibited,” he wrote on social media.
Now the president is taking action. The courts can prevent him. The media doubt that the abolition procedure will go smoothly. In any case, the head of the White House must enlist the support of Congress. After all, it was the American parliament that created the Ministry of Education in 1979, AP notes.
The fate of grants, student loans, and support for educational institutions remains a key issue. The latter are funded by the state by only 14%.
However, Washington plays a rather significant role: assistance is provided to low-income schools and vulnerable students, in particular the homeless. The question remains as to how much the state will cover the student debt. Recall that in the United States, it is a widespread phenomenon for students to take out loans for their studies. Currently, student debt is about $1.6 billion.
Upon taking office, McMahon promised that the most important areas of the ministry’s activities would not be forgotten. However, the final decision is made, of course, not by her, but rather by the president of the country.
Conversations about the ministry and whether it is needed have been going on almost since its foundation. Many Republicans are convinced that the agency is simply implementing a leftist agenda and spending taxpayers’ money on it. And parents believe that they should have more authority in the field of education.
Trump is ready to satisfy their aspirations. He promises to leave the field of education in the competence of the states. He called the agency “a bunch of radicals, fanatics and Marxists.”
However, the president may face resistance from party members. In 2023, at a vote in the House of Representatives, 60 Republicans did not support the idea of eliminating the department. Now Trump will either have to “bend over” his fellow party members, or retain the most important initiatives to support schoolchildren and students.
The annual budget of the Ministry of Education is 79 billion dollars. The federal government has already put pressure on employees to quit. Employees of the Ministry of Education were among those who received a high-profile offer to resign before February 6 and receive compensation in the amount of a seven-month salary.
It is quite possible that Trump will limit himself to resigning the federal bureaucracy, leaving important funding programs. But there are no specifics yet, it should also manifest itself in McMahon’s actions.
