Republicans’ love/hate relationship with the Education Department

NPR

Cory Turner

February 24, 2025

The fight over the U.S. Department of Education has begun, but the battle lines are a little blurry.

President Trump says he wants to close the department, and the Senate is expected to vote soon on the confirmation of Linda McMahon, his nominee to be education secretary.

At her recent confirmation hearing, McMahon said she would work to realize Trump’s vision of unwinding the department and “return education to the states where it belongs.”

At the same hearing, though, some Republicans appeared torn about the fate of the department – because they support many of the things it does.

‘Red tape on their desks’

The Education Department has always been a popular target for Republicans, a morass of federal bureaucracy and a rallying cry for states’ rights.

“In many cases, our wounds are caused by the excessive consolidation of power in our federal education establishment,” McMahon told lawmakers at her confirmation hearing, blaming the department for falling student achievement, among other ills. “Outstanding teachers are tired of political ideology in their curriculum and red tape on their desks.”

But later in the hearing, it was a fellow Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who reminded her colleagues that the Education Department doesn’t control schools. In fact, federal law makes it illegal for the department to tell them what or even how to teach, she said.

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