Karoline Leavitt credits staggering reading stat for why Trump will 'abolish' Education Department entirely

Karoline Leavittwhite House press secretary

When it comes to the Department of Education, the president and the policy team continue to look at options and how to reduce the size of the Department of Education, if not abolish it completely,

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News on Thursday

Karoline Leavittwhite House press secretary

The current system located in Washington, D.C., is not working,

Leavitt said

Nothing could be more important to our success as a nation than having well-educated citizens,

DeVos wrote

The constitutionality of any decision to shut down these departments and agencies will be challenged as the president cannot dissolve or consolidate agencies without the approval of Congress,

Nekritin said

For President Trump to dissolve the Department of Education, he will have to abide by statutory law. First, he must present a 'reorganization plan' to Congress,

he continued

Congress would have to approve the president's reorganization plan within 90 days of the plan's presentation,

he continued

The president also cannot withhold funds allocated to agencies by law,

he added

Rebecca S. Pringlenational Education Association President

If it became a reality, Trump's power grab would steal resources for our most vulnerable students, explode class sizes, cut job-training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle class families, take away special education services for students with disabilities, and gut student civil rights protections."

Pringle said

President Trump has already made clear his intentions to get rid of public education at every turn—including with his latest extreme proposal to completely eliminate the Department of Education,

it says

We spend more per pupil than any other country in the world and we're ranked at the bottom of the list, we're ranked very badly. What I want to do is let the states run schools."

He said

Tim Walberghouse Education and Workforce Chair

Since 1979, we've had the Department of Education, but before that, we had an education system that produced the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the Communications Revolution,

Walberg told Newsmax

We can get back to the basics that say our students ought to learn reading, writing, and arithmetic, ... [We can] learn to work together, learn to create whatever we need for the future."

the Michigan Republican said on "Wake Up America."

Ro Khannarepresentative

NBC is reporting that Trump will eliminate the Department of Education with an executive order. This is an assault on America's children."

California Representative Ro Khanna posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday

Working class taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill for woke degrees that don't provide any value to the economy. We need to cut funding for federally subsidized student loans and fix our broken education system."

Texas Congressman Brandon Gill, a Republican, posted on X on January 28

I make my payments every month but it feels like my balance barely moves. Interest keeps stacking up and sometimes I wonder if I'll ever actually be debt-free. It's like I signed up for a lifetime subscription to Sallie Mae. Has anyone actually paid theirs off? If so, how? I need some hope."

One Reddit user by the name u/Doriciktus posted on Tuesday

Elon Muskally

Massive increase in spending after the Department of Education was created with no actual improvement in education!"

Elon Musk posted to X on Tuesday

He was very curious as to what thoughts we had on that and I think you had so many people agreeing with the idea of devolving at least a lot of the function, even if some of the federal support, for instance, continues to go to higher ed, student violence and things like that. It could be structured much differently and more effectively,

said Williams

There was a lot of discussion around, how can the federal government support the effort of the states and do it in a light-handed way that is not overly burdensome on state autonomy and federalism. I think that's going to be the key — can you continue these functions such as student loans and things like the GI Bill,

said Williams

The biggest piece of it is how do we make sure that we can get that function out of D.C., into the states, but also keep some of those federal pieces of facilitation that will be necessary to keep programs running for the people that are relying on those at the same time,

said Williams

How do we make sure that this magic moment in time for education freedom is something that we can accomplish for the most possible for students and parents across the country?”

His challenge, according to Jonathan Williams, president and chief economist of the American Legislative Exchange Council, was