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Pop quiz!

A celebrity-turned-politician runs for president on a bold pledge to abolish the U.S. Department of Education. Does that sentence describe:

• A) Ronald Reagan in 1980; or
• B) Donald Trump in 2024?

The answer is: C) all of the above. While 罢谤耻尘辫鈥檚 brash rhetoric about the federal agency has raised fresh alarm bells among voters who oppose him, Republicans鈥� perennial calls to eliminate the Education Department actually date back to its creation 45 years ago.

No president has come close to fulfilling that promise.

The best chance for getting it done may have come in 1981, when Reagan Education Secretary Terrel H. Bell drafted a 91-page memo about converting the nascent federal agency to a small foundation that would conduct research and provide support but 鈥渁void direction and control.鈥�

That memo was the first scoop for the publication you are reading right now鈥攖he subject of the very first story in Education Week.

Decades later, the Education Department still operates, unabolished.

鈥淚t is striking to see how similar the contours of the debate over the Department of Education today are to what we saw back in 1981,鈥� said Martin West, the academic dean at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The unsuccessful track record of attempts to shrink the federal role probably won鈥檛 end anytime soon, he said. But West and other education leaders say those ongoing debates about governance should not distract from the obligation educators and policymakers at all levels have to improve schools and outcomes for students.

The first attempt to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education hit roadblocks

The federal 鈥渙ffice of education鈥� was housed in other agencies until President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, signed legislation to establish a separate Education Department in 1979 with strong support from the National Education Association.

Just as they are today, early efforts to shutter the department were animated by claims about bloated bureaucracy, excessive spending, and federal overreach into states鈥� education systems.

Bell鈥檚 memo in 1981 stated: 鈥淭he 10th Amendment, reserving to the states and the people powers not delegated to federal government by the Constitution, has not been followed鈥攅specially in education鈥攕trictly and wisely by Congress and the courts.鈥�

罢谤耻尘辫鈥檚 in 2023 promises: 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to end education coming out of Washington, D.C. We鈥檙e going to close it up鈥攁ll those buildings all over the place and people that, in many cases, hate our children. We鈥檙e going to send it all back to the states.鈥�

Bell detailed 鈥渁 precise blueprint not only for downgrading the year-old department to the status of a sub-Cabinet-level foundation, but also for engineering a fundamental realignment of the federal role in American education,鈥� said the 1981 story, which ran top-of-the-fold in Education Week鈥檚 first issue.

The memo called for an aggressive campaign to sell lawmakers on a 鈥渞adical shift from the status quo.鈥� The plan would have converted federal funding to block grants for states, moved student financial aid programs to the Treasury Department, and shifted scaled-back civil rights enforcement to the Justice Department. It faced immediate pushback.

Today, proposals to slim the federal footprint echo those ideas. Both the 2024 GOP platform and Project 2025, a 900-page conservative policy agenda put out by the Heritage Foundation and created by Trump allies, call for dismantling the Education Department. Project 2025, which Trump has sought to distance himself from, calls for converting major sources of federal funding, like Title I and IDEA, to block grants with few policy strings attached鈥攁 plan that Congress has rejected in the past.

Bell was later credited with preserving Education Department

Bell鈥檚 mandate from Reagan鈥攖o shut down the agency he was appointed to lead鈥攚as more than a little ironic. A former Utah state schools chief and acting commissioner of education in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Bell had testified in support of forming the Education Department as a separate agency.

The same month he sent his memo to Reagan, Bell formed the National Commission on Excellence in Education, which would later release 鈥淎 Nation at Risk,鈥� a report on the 鈥渞ising tide of mediocrity鈥� in American education that helped fuel many later reform efforts, including some that critics on both sides of the political spectrum have panned as federal overreach, like a growing emphasis on standardized testing and support for rigorous state standards.

Bell, increasingly convinced of the need for federal leadership, slow-walked the effort to end the Education Department as it faced resistance from a skeptical Congress, those involved told Education Week when Bell died in 1996.

鈥淲hat he did was weave and bob. He elongated the process until the momentum died,鈥� said John F. Jennings, then the director of the Center for Education Policy in Washington and a former longtime House Democratic aide.

Bell resigned after Reagan鈥檚 first term, when the president said the agency 鈥渞emained a target for elimination,鈥� Education Week reported. Bell lamented that he鈥檇 been unsuccessful in convincing conservative critics that it would be a mistake to withdraw 鈥渁ll federal concern and support of education.鈥�

鈥淭here was simply no commitment to a federal leadership role to assist the states and their local school districts in carrying out the recommendations of 鈥楢 Nation at Risk,鈥欌�� he wrote in his 1988 memoir, The Thirteenth Man.

Calls to dismantle the Education Department echo partisan divides

Today鈥檚 calls to end the department appear to be a way for Trump to tap into institutional distrust and conservative concerns about recent federal education decisions, like President Joe Biden鈥檚 plan to forgive student-loan debt or Title IX guidance that directed schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms that align with their gender identity.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 really get what the thesis is other than it鈥檚 a bumper sticker,鈥� said Margaret Spellings, who served as U.S. Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush. 鈥淭he further along we get, and the more constituents there that are bought into the programs, resources, and expertise鈥攖hat ship has sailed.鈥�

In a national YouGov poll conducted July 8-11, , compared to just 7 percent of Democrats. Annual polls by Gallup have also found that, while a with their own child鈥檚 school, Republicans are far less likely than Democrats to report satisfaction with the U.S. education system as a whole.

Some Americans also misunderstand that a majority of funding for schools鈥攁nd a majority of decisions about their governance鈥攁re state and local, Spellings said.

The challenges associated with dismantling the federal agency have only grown over the years with the passage of new civil rights laws it must enforce, new data it must collect, and the expansion of its budget. That鈥檚 why people like West, who advised Sen. Mitt Romney on education when he campaigned for president, see 罢谤耻尘辫鈥檚 call to shut down the department as more of messaging effort than a sincere plan.

鈥淥ne of the things you learn by looking at what happened in the early 1980s is that, were a president to want to eliminate the department, it would take a massive investment of political capital,鈥� West said. 鈥淩eagan, it seems, was not willing to make that a priority. And there was no indication [during 罢谤耻尘辫鈥檚 term in office] that Trump made that proposal鈥攐r frankly, anything else related to K-12 education鈥攁 priority.鈥�

Trump previously attempted to scale back the Education Department

During his previous term, Trump proposed merging the department with the U.S. Department of Labor in a 2018 plan that never got off the ground. He also proposed converting 29 existing federal programs into a flexible block grant, a proposal Congress rejected.

Trump supporters like Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters have continued those calls during the 2024 campaign.

鈥淭he federal government comes up with a new initiative every few years. They give you some money, and they think they can control states and schools,鈥� Walters told a gathering held by the conservative activist group Moms for Liberty in 2023.

Before Trump, the last presidential candidate to call for abolishing the Education Department in the party platform was Sen. Bob Dole, who lost his race to President Bill Clinton in 1996. Bush, who was elected in 2000, favored a stronger federal role, and that philosophy became the basis for No Child Left Behind, a bipartisan law that introduced new requirements for testing and accountability as a condition of federal funding.

鈥淎s a Republican, he was all about accountability for spending, and he used to talk about education as a civil right,鈥� Spellings said of Bush. 鈥淚t made sense not to abolish it, but to use the federal role in a discrete and muscular way. If we are going to spend our money in the name of addressing the achievement gap, let鈥檚 get our money鈥檚 worth.鈥�

The law has faced pushback from teachers鈥� unions and conservative lawmakers alike. But Spellings said she鈥檚 also heard from state and local school administrators who said it gave them political cover for making tough calls to improve their systems, which she considers a good use of the federal power she had.

Bush鈥檚 successor, President Barack Obama, also signed a bipartisan education bill, the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced NCLB and gave states more discretion in how they structured their accountability systems.

Today鈥檚 schools face new challenges: a mental health crisis, rapidly evolving technology, and continued efforts to help students recover academically after pandemic-related interruptions.

Today鈥檚 proponents of ending the agency say those issues should be handled by states. Opponents say the federal government must take a leadership role.

Parceling the agency鈥檚 programs out to other agencies would be nothing more than a superficial change that eats up a lot of political capital, Spellings said. And actually dismantling federal funding streams would be a Herculean task that would be met with immediate outrage from superintendents in every congressional district who rely on that aid to keep schools open.

Questions about how the federal government is structured shouldn鈥檛 distract from urgent, complicated conversations about how to help students succeed, Spellings said.

Will voters, educators, and policy makers still be arguing about the federal role in education 45 years from now?

鈥淚鈥檓 sure we鈥檒l be continuing to debate the federal role in American education,鈥� West said, 鈥渂ut I hope that we will spend more of our time debating the substance of that role, rather than where within the federal bureaucracy it is housed.鈥�