President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that would dismantle the Department of Education (DOE) and folks on the left aren’t too happy about it.
The executive order was met with much wailing and gnashing of teeth coming from Democrats who are upset at the prospect of the federal government no longer having overwhelming control of how states educate their children.
Sen. Elizabeth “Lieawatha” Warren (D-MA) published in a video shortly before Trump issued the order urging Americans to “stick together” and “fight back.”
I don't care if you are a Democrat, a Republican, an Independent, a Libertarian, a vegetarian. We need you in this fight. This is the fight for an America where it's not just rich kids who get an education and have a chance to build something with their lives, but that every kid in America gets the best education they can, so they can build the best lives. But the only way that's going to happen is if we stay in this fight. It is a fight we can win.
Donald Trump is trying to dismantle public education in America.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 20, 2025
To every public school student, teacher, and parent: this is our moment to stick together and fight back. pic.twitter.com/wsC7ereS0u
Democratic strategist and former adviser to Kamala Harris suggested that Democrats “blame everything that happens in public schools on Republicans for closing the Education Department, just like Republicans do with Obamacare and health care.”
Democrats should blame everything that happens in public schools on Republicans for closing the Education Department, just like Republicans do with Obamacare and health care.
— Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis) March 20, 2025
Make them own this—it’s an unpopular decision that only the far right was begging for.
A lot of kids…
Chasten Buttigieg, husband of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, accused Republicans of trying to “take money from your kids’ schools to give tax breaks to billionaires.”
Couldn’t he have come up with something a bit more creative instead of peddling that hackneyed talking point?
It’s simple. They’re going after the Department of Education to take money from your kids’ schools to give tax breaks to billionaires.
— Chasten Glezman Buttigieg (@Chasten) March 20, 2025
Virginia Democratic Reps. Robert C. Scott and Gerald E. Connolly wrote a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon strongly objecting to the plan to lay waste to the department. They complained about the Trump administration’s decision to terminate about 1,300 employees, calling them “illegally dismissed employees.”
The letter further argues that Trump’s order would “have a negative impact on our kids.” The lawmakers insisted that the White House “must rescind this unlawful executive order, abandon these illegal reductions in force, and restore all employees improperly terminated.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also chimed in. He released a statement in which he accused the Trump administration of taking “a chainsaw to public education in America.”
Shutting down the Department of Education will harm millions of children in our nation’s public schools, their families and hardworking teachers. Class sizes will soar, educators will be fired, special education programs will be cut and college will get even more expensive, at a time when the cost of living is already too high.
Jeffries further alleged that Trump and Republicans “are crashing the economy in real time” and that “they believe that giving massive tax breaks to billionaires is more important than supporting our public school children.”
Lastly, we have Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) who claimed the White House “does not have the constitutional power to eliminate the Department of Education without the approval of Congress” and that Trump is trying to “defund and destabilize the agency to manufacture chaos and push their extremist agenda.”
Frost’s line about Congress has been repeated by many on the left. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) have both introduced legislation that would eliminate the DOE. With a Republican-dominated Congress, it is possible that such a bill just might pass.
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