Dems, GOP spar on schools as Education Department hangs in the balance

The Hill

Lexi Lonas Cochran

February 5, 2025

The House Education and the Workforce Committee’s first hearing of the year saw Democrats take on the “elephant in the room” as President Trump and Republicans seek to move toward abolishing the Education Department, though GOP lawmakers largely declined to address the issue.

“The State of American Education” hearing Wednesday hit on a number of targets including school choice, the student loan system and falling student test scores, but the news of Trump looking at executive actions to weaken, with the hope to eventually abolish, the Department of Education stayed front and center.

“I’d like to first start with the elephant in the room, and there is current reporting that President Trump plans to issue an executive order to eliminate critical programs at the Department of Education and calling on Congress to eliminate the entire department. But then I recall that that’s exactly what the Project 2025 said the president should do,” ranking member Bobby Scott (D-Va.) said.

“The irony is not lost on me that we’re here to discuss the state of American education while current administration is actively discussing how to dismantle the main federal agency responsible for ensuring safe quality education for all students,” he added.

The Wall Street Journal on Monday was the first to report Trump is looking at executive actions to move programs from the Department of Education to other federal agencies, cutting the number of employees and calling on Congress to pass legislation eliminating the department completely.

Bills have been introduced multiple times to do just that, but the measures have so far failed to gain significant momentum.

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