DOGE vs. the Education Department

Politico’s Morning Education

Bianca Quilantan

January 6, 2025

‘DOGE IS COMING’ — President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to get rid of the Education Department — and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency will likely play a key role in any cuts to or restructuring of the federal agency.

— Trump in mid-November announced that Elon Musk and fellow Trump acolyte Vivek Ramaswamy would spearhead efforts to shrink the federal government through DOGE — a winking reference to a joke cryptocurrency — and conclude their work by July 4, 2026. The duo is already making some of their thoughts about American education and the Education Department known on social media.

— “Our Dept. of Education blows $$ without accountability. Unelected bureaucrats are the core problem. DOGE is coming,” Ramaswamy posted on X in November.

— Of the two DOGE leaders, Ramaswamy has made the most public remarks about education. He has asserted that education should be funded by state and local governments, “not the feds,” and returning that responsibility to the states is part of a “key solution to our federal deficit problem.”

— Ramaswamy most recently highlighted a post from Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice that included worrying statistics of students’ reading and math performances from the NAEP, known as the nation’s report card.

“This is a 5-alarm fire & President Trump’s vision to dismantle the Department of Education is the first step to fixing it,” he wrote. “The federal bureaucracy has wasted boatloads of taxpayer $$ while impeding the success of our students. The statistics below are downright brutal.”

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