Ed Dept's end will make Florida schools as good as Finland's, says Trump. Probably not.

In an executive order signed yesterday, President Trump told Education Secretary Linda McMahon to dismantle the U.S. Education Department to the “maximum extent . . . permitted by law,” returning "authority over education to the States and local communities.”

The order calls for ensuring “the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely,” report Erica Meltzer and Andrew Ujifusa for Chalkbeat. As the Education Department withers, other federal agencies will take over its responsibilities, such as funding for disadvantaged students and those with disabilities, the president said.

Surrounded by the Republican governors of Florida, Texas, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Louisiana, Tennessee, Idaho, and Nebraska, Trump said giving states more control over education will cut costs and improve quality. States that “run very, very well,” he said, could have education systems as good as those in high-scoring Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.

McMahon pledged a "lawful and orderly transition.”

It's unlikely that eliminating the department and shifting funding to other parts of the federal government will turn Americans into Nordic math whizzes. The feds don't dictate curriculum or teaching methods, and supply less than 10 percent of K-12 funding. Education already is a state and local matter.

Congress created the department, and only Congress can eliminate it. Trump doesn't have the votes for that, writes Andrew Rotherham, who thinks the real goal is somewhere between restructuring and show business. "They’ll keep revisiting the issue, like a popular recurring character on a sitcom — the Department of Education as the Costanzas," he predicts.

He's also dubious that giving states more say on how to spend federal funds will raise achievement. "We just tried a giant block grant experiment — $190 billion during Covid," he writes. "It didn't accomplish much . . . State flexibility is great, I’m in favor, but federal guardrails around accountability and consequently assessment matter."

DOGE's cuts have slashed agencies that collect and analyze data on student achievement, and "canceled hundreds of millions of dollars worth of research grants and contracts," notes Chalkbeat. If there's one thing that seems like an appropriate federal role it's tracking student achievement. How will we know when Nebraskans are doing as well as Norwegians?

Americans don't think much of the Education Department, reports Pew in a summary explaining what the department does. About 44 percent had a favorable opinion in a 2024 Pew Research Center survey, while 45 percent were unfavorable. "That put it near the bottom of the 16 federal agencies and departments" in the survey, just ahead of the Justice Department and the IRS.