FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Ericka Hatfield
March 20, 2025 Ericka@dfer.org
DFER CEO Jorge Elorza Responds to the Trump Administration’s Executive Order on the Department of Education
March 20, 2025 (New York, NY) — Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) CEO Jorge Elorza released the following statement in response to the Trump Administration’s Executive Order regarding the Department of Education:
“Donald Trump released an executive order today declaring that the ‘Secretary of Education shall, to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities.’
It is important to note that this executive order is based on a deep misunderstanding of how education works in our nation. The vast majority of the authority over education in the United States already rests with states and local school districts. Most of the funding for schools comes from their local communities and states, not from the federal government. The Department of Education has no power to dictate curriculum in schools or to tell teachers what they can and cannot teach.
This Executive Order sets out to fix the wrong problem.
The recent NAEP results revealed that academic achievement between the upper and lower 25% of students has continued to grow wider. As the United States continues to lag behind our international peers, the Trump Administration should be concentrating its efforts on addressing the lingering crisis of learning loss and the widening of the achievement gap. Instead, their actions will complicate the distribution of essential funding, reduce support for the most needy students, make it more difficult to track student achievement, and reduce enforcement of civil rights protections. This will put severe strains on state and local education budgets and will only add to the ongoing academic crisis.
Despite these challenges, DFER will continue our advocacy to reform stagnant education systems, to demand high-quality school options, such as public charter schools, and protect the civil rights of every student. This executive order will sow additional chaos and disorder at a time when Democrats and Republicans should be working together to strengthen education for all students and families. America’s students deserve better than this.”
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To be clear, the President does not have the authority to eliminate the Department of Education, which was created by an Act of Congress and thus cannot be eliminated without the approval of Congress. The same is true of transferring major programs, such as Title I, IDEA, and Federal Student Aid. Any path to eliminating or significantly restructuring the agency will almost certainly require bipartisan support in Congress, which is not a real possibility in the current Congressional landscape.
Read more:
10 Reasons Why Eliminating the U.S. Department of Education is a Mistake
Who Has What Power Over the Department of Education
Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) works to get Democratic leaders to embrace and enthusiastically champion innovative, evidence-based, high-quality public education options for all students, particularly students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, and other historically underserved students. Learn more about DFER, or Find an Expert and follow us on Twitter.