President Trump has officially delivered on a major campaign promise, signing an executive order to shut down the federal Department of Education and return control of schooling back to the states and local communities—where it always should have been.

While big questions about the Department of Education's future remain unanswered, here is everything to know about its history, and some of the plans conservatives have pushed for dismantling the agency. https://t.co/D2JlzftRur

— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 20, 2025

Created in the late 1970s as a political payoff between Jimmy Carter and teachers unions, the Department has since burned through $3 trillion with little to show for it. National test scores have continued to plummet, teacher morale is at an all-time low, and parents are fed up with federal overreach that has done nothing to improve learning outcomes.

According to Gallup, public education ranks near the bottom of Americans’ concerns—worse than crime, taxes, or immigration. Nearly three-quarters of Americans are dissatisfied, and they know real solutions won’t come from Washington bureaucrats.

Trump’s final Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, brought in private sector expertise, slashing bloat like the department’s six redundant offices for strategic communications and exposing the reality that most of the Department’s 4,300 employees weren’t even performing essential duties.

Despite the usual protests from union bosses and D.C. insiders, the American people have largely welcomed the change. Teachers, parents, and school leaders across the country see the truth: the federal Department of Education became little more than a jobs program for government bureaucrats.

With education authority returning to the states, America is entering a new era of local control, accountability, and real reform—led not by Washington, but by families and communities who actually know what kids need.