How California could benefit if Trump actually dissolved the Education Department
Lance Christensen
January 16, 2025
A lot of Democrats are upset about the increasing chatter from President-elect Donald Trump and the incoming administration about eliminating the U.S. Department of Education.
For example, California’s state superintendent of schools, Tony Thurmond, responded by saying, “To tear down and abolish an organization that provides protections for our students is a threat to the well-being of our students and our families and of Americans.”
Much of the progressive attachment to the department is misplaced.
Rather than engage the proposal, Thurmond’s response seems like a projection of how he uses his own state-level Department of Education as leverage against districts he detests. It also ignores the fact that most education spending comes from local and state resources, and a significant chunk of federal funds don’t get to the classroom — or students themselves — because of the number of middlemen who take their cut first, particularly from grants.
