President Donald Trump doubled down on his plan to eliminate the Department of Education during an Oval Office press scrum Thursday, dismissing any second thoughts about an executive order to wind down the agency.
Speaking to reporters, Trump framed the move as a return of school control to the states, arguing it would boost America’s dismal education rankings while slashing federal oversight.
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“No, no, no, no, no,” Trump said when asked if he was reconsidering the order. “I want to bring the schools back to the states. We’re ranked at the bottom of the list, and yet we spend more.” He pointed to the U.S. topping global per-student spending charts but lagging in outcomes, a refrain he’s repeated “a hundred times.”
His solution? Decentralize education, letting states take the reins. “If I bring it back to 40 states, 10 states won’t be perfect, five states will be probably not so good, but they will be every bit as good as Norway and Denmark and Sweden,” he predicted, name-checking top-performing nations.
Trump’s vision hinges on a belief that local control trumps Washington’s bureaucracy.
“You tell me about Indiana and some of these great states that run really well—Iowa—if they run their own education, they’re going to do a lot better than somebody sitting in Washington, D.C., that couldn’t care less about the pupils out in the Midwest,” he said.
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He also nodded to school choice, suggesting it would “take care of itself” under state-led systems.
The comments confirm Trump’s intent to follow through on a campaign pledge, though he sidestepped specifics on timing. “We’re in the process,” he said when pressed on signing the order. “We’re trying to get the schools back into the states, and you’ll see something.”
The Department of Education, with its $80 billion annual budget and oversight of federal student aid, has long been a GOP target—Trump now aims to make its abolition a second-term hallmark.
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