The Trump Administration Has Mostly Dismantled the Ed. Dept. Should You Care?
Rick Hess
March 16, 2026
What the cuts, layoffs, and agency shifts actually mean for schools
The Trump administration’s ultimate objective is semi clear. The ambition is unmistakable. Bold measures have yielded real changes. But where things get murkier is how this is going to play out, what might go wrong, and what it’ll all amount to in the end.
Now, we could be talking about the East Wing, tariffs, or the attack on Iran. But, in this case, it’s the push to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (ED).
The administration’s allies will tell you that heroic doings are afoot. DOGE slashed the bureaucracy! Huge swaths of the department are being smoothly shifted to other Cabinet agencies, with federal processes now streamlined and more user-friendly! Education is being returned to the states!
