BREITBART | Published February 13, 2025
President Donald Trump expressed that he wants the Department of Education to be “closed immediately,” describing it as a “big con job.”
When asked by a reporter how soon Trump wanted the Department of Education to be closed, Trump criticized how the United States education system was ranked 40th compared to other countries but ranked number one in terms of “costs per pupil.”
“Oh, I’d like it to be closed immediately,” Trump answered. “Look, the Department of Education is a big con job. We’re ranked — so they ranked the top forty countries in the world. We’re ranked number 40th, but we’re ranked number one in one department, costs per pupil. So, we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, but we’re ranked number 40. We’ve been between 38 and 40, the last time I looked it was 38 and then I looked two days ago … it came out at number 40.”
“Norway, Denmark, Sweden, I hate to say it — China, as big as it is, it’s ranked in the top five,” Trump continued. “That’s a primary competitor. We’re ranked number 40 — so, if we’re ranked number 40, that means something’s really wrong, right?”
Trump continued to state that the United States government should send education back down to states, “I say send it back to Iowa, to Idaho, to Colorado.”
“We probably have 35, maybe 37 states that will do as well as Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden,” Trump added. “They’ll be just as good.”
Trump has previously stated he wants to close the Department of Education and move education back into the hands of the states.
Breitbart News’s Nick Gilbertson previously reported that Trump recently suggested that he would task Linda McMahon, his nominee to lead the Department of Education, to wind the department down and “put herself out of a job.”
“What I want to do is let the states run schools,” Trump said in response to a reporter asking why he had appointed McMahon to lead the Department of Education if he wants to get rid of it. “I believe strongly in school choice, but in addition to that, I want the states to run schools, and I want Linda to put herself out of a job.”
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SOURCE: www.breitbart.com
RELATED: Trump says he wants Education Department to be closed immediately
On Wednesday, Donald Trump said he had seen a report showing the US ranked 40th worlwide in education despite spending the most per student
REUTERS | Published February 13, 2025
WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he wanted the federal Education Department to be closed immediately.
Trump had said last week he would like to close the Department of Education using an executive order but acknowledged he would need buy-ins from Congress and teachers’ unions to fulfill his campaign pledge to do so.
An immediate closure of the Education Department could disrupt tens of billions of dollars in aid to K-12 schools and tuition assistance for college students.
Trump has spent his first weeks in office pushing through massive changes to the U.S. government, demanding federal employees come back to work in offices or quit, seeking cost and job cuts and trying to shut down agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The Education Department has been high on Trump’s list of targets.
“I’d like it to be closed immediately,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “The Department of Education’s a big con job.”
The president has previously said he had tasked Linda McMahon, his pick to be education secretary, to shutter the department he wants her to lead.
Trump proposed shuttering the Education Department in his first term from 2017-2021 but Congress did not act. The agency employs 4,245 and spent $251 billion in the most recent year.
Conservative thinktanks that have called for abolishing the Education Department have proposed that other agencies could handle its aid programs and oversight duties.
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SOURCE: www.reuters.com
