A eulogy for the U.S. Department of Education

President Donald Trump’s call to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education has reignited long-standing debates over the federal government’s role in America’s schools. Critics accuse the DOE of bloated bureaucracy and stagnant test scores, insisting states and parents know best. Yet, focusing solely on “performance” and “efficiency” overlooks a more urgent question: Why does public education exist in the first place?

The Founding Fathers believed an educated citizenry was indispensable for preserving the republic, hoping to enshrine that principle in state constitutions (having omitted it from the U.S. Constitution). Over time, however, education policy drifted from that civic ideal toward narrower goals like standardized test scores.

Recent administrations further eroded public education’s original mission, leaving the modern DOE ill-prepared to fix systemic inequities and drive performance — and all too vulnerable to those who would abolish it.

Early American leaders regarded public schools as democracy’s bulwark. “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people,” Thomas Jefferson famously noted, while John Adams insisted, “The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people.”

Despite such fervent rhetoric, the Constitution never codified a federal role in education. That omission allowed a patchwork system to take root, with sharp divides between North and South.

In the North, public education expanded steadily, but in the South, it remained a privilege of the wealthy. That disparity turned disastrous when secessionists weaponized misinformation to rally support for the Confederacy — distributing inflammatory pamphlets, silencing pro-Union voices, and perpetuating the false narrative that the North sought total domination.

Ignorance and polarization ignited a war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives, nearly ending the “Great Experiment” just as it began.

After the Civil War, Congress briefly strengthened oversight so newly emancipated children in the South could attend school. Former Confederate states were required to guarantee free public education before rejoining the Union, and a prototype of the DOE was established “to aid the people of the United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems.”

Alarmed that federal involvement would upend local racial hierarchies and state authority, Southern legislators swiftly downgraded the department.

In 1875, President Ulysses S. Grant made one last attempt to secure nationwide support for public education. He proposed a constitutional amendment requiring every state “to establish and forever maintain free public schools adequate to the education of all the children.” Echoing the founders, Grant warned that “a large association of ignorant men cannot for any considerable period oppose a successful resistance to tyranny.”

Though the proposal passed the House, it died in the Senate — leaving federal oversight in limbo.

The 20th century introduced two new objectives that eclipsed education’s civic purpose: expanding access, and boosting academic excellence.

Landmark measures like Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which outlawed segregated schools, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965), which provided federal funds to low-income communities, targeted racial and economic inequalities. Yet, these initiatives often ignored broader social ills — such as housing and health care — that profoundly affect learning.

Additionally, fear of Soviet technological advances spurred the National Defense Education Act (1958), channeling money into higher education. Sputnik-era anxiety fueled massive investments in math and science, eventually doubling college enrollments.

When President Jimmy Carter elevated the DOE to a cabinet-level agency in 1980, these twin missions — equal access and high achievement — became its raison d’être. With only 11% of school funding coming from Washington, and with local authorities making decisions, the DOE struggled to reduce inequality or drive consistent academic gains. Administrations turned to test-based accountability — through either incentives or penalties — reinforcing the notion that “failing” schools deserved closure or takeover.

Two major issues emerged. First, measuring success by test scores sidelined civic knowledge, critical thinking, and collaborative problem-solving — the bedrock of a healthy democracy. Second, the DOE’s inability to eliminate achievement gaps made it an easy scapegoat for critics who consider any federal role an infringement on state and local control.

President Trump’s hostility to the DOE long predates his presidency. Project 2025 — a road map from conservative think tanks — proposes shifting some DOE functions to the U.S. Treasury Department and handing civil rights enforcement to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Influenced by 20th-century economist Milton Friedman’s insistence that families, not the government, should control education, these plans embrace a free-market approach that underestimates the broader civic function of public schools.

Indeed, families have a central role in their children’s education, but public schooling serves everyone, including those without kids, by safeguarding the civic and cultural bonds that hold us together.

Abolishing the DOE might sound bold, but it only deepens the fragmentation that has haunted America since its founding. When local interests dominate, entire regions can become echo chambers — fertile ground for propaganda and culture wars. Trump’s calls for “patriotic education” claim to unify, yet ironically remove the chief mechanism for ensuring all children gain the fundamentals of self-governance.

If we dismantle the only national institution charged with promoting a common civic purpose, we risk deeper polarization — or even violence.

The founders may have omitted education from the Constitution, but they never intended to ignore its national importance. Most crucially, they designed a system able to self-correct. America’s greatness lies not in outshining other nations, but in recognizing and correcting its own faults. A flawed DOE can be reformed; an abolished DOE would leave us dangerously unmoored.

In the end, the choice is clear: Do we uphold the public’s stake in educating the next generation of voters and leaders, or do we walk away from a key guardrail that — however imperfect — keeps our democracy from unraveling altogether?

The fate of the Department of Education may well decide the fate of the republic itself.

AJ Ernst worked as a teacher and administrator in Philadelphia for 13 years and has his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.