The Department of Education Is Making a Great Case for Its Own Abolition
Jonathan Butcher and Lindsey M. Burke, PhD
July 15, 2024
The U.S. Department of Education is on a losing streak. College student loan “forgiveness?” Stuck in legal limbo. Update to the federal student loan online platform? System crashed. Radical changes to Title IX of the Civil Rights Act? Courts have issued injunctions.
Conservatives have argued for years that the federal education agency is unconstitutional, but the department is making its own case for closure by promulgating policies that are either ineffective or illegal (or both). And a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling has accelerated its drive to futility.
Start with student loans. President Joe Biden’s administration has twice tried to shift the cost of repaying student loans from borrowers to taxpayers. Under the guise of “loan forgiveness,” the Biden team wants Americans who are working and raising families to pay college loans for people they have never even met. The U.S. Supreme Court blocked one plan in 2023, and, more recently, a federal district judge said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona exceeded his authority in another attempt. Despite these rulings, the White House was still able to put taxpayers on the hook for some loans, but the overall initiative has been pummeled in court. Strike one.
