Why do Republicans dislike the Department of Education? The answer goes back decades
- Conservatives have long argued that the Department of Education represents federal overreach into state and local control of education.
- They also object to the department's role in promoting social policies they disagree with, such as affirmative action and LGBTQ+ rights.
- Arizona, a state with a strong conservative bent, has been at the forefront of implementing school choice policies, which Republicans see as a way to reduce the power of the Education Department.
President Donald Trump is turning his government-downsizing plans to a long-standing target of the right: the U.S. Department of Education. But why do conservatives resent the agency?
It’s almost a rite of American politics by now that Republicans want to trim or shutter various government agencies, and for decades Education has fit the bill.
Illustrating the ideological divide between the parties, Democrats have long sought to expand health care coverage using government programs.
But with Republicans holding both chambers of Congress and the White House, the right may finally have the political power and momentum to see it through.
Here’s some of what helps drive that.
Reagan crystallized discontent
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter followed through on a campaign promise and signed into law the modern Department of Education. It consolidated some existing education-related programs, but also created new authority. Opponents — and there were plenty even then — argued that it would empower federal encroachment into traditionally state and local authority over education.
The new agency came about at a time when many resented court-ordered school desegregation that had unfolded throughout the 1970s. It also revived a short-lived effort that began after the Civil War and ended unceremoniously about a year later.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan campaigned for president against the new incarnation of the agency. The Republican Party platform that year “encourages the elimination of the federal Department of Education.”
The GOP instead wanted education policy based on “the primacy of parental rights and responsibility. Toward that end, we reaffirm our support for a system of educational assistance based on tax credits that will in part compensate parents for their financial sacrifices in paying tuition at the elementary, secondary, and post-secondary level.”
Reagan won the 1980 and 1984 elections, but Democratic opposition made abolishing the agency an impossibility. In 1985, as he began his second term, Reagan conceded he could not move ahead on that front or even with the voucher plans he wanted.
His successor, President George H.W. Bush, sought to be “the education president” and largely worked within the existing federal framework to push for public school accountability using standardized testing, though his “America 2000” initiative never really materialized.
His son, President George W. Bush, went much farther with the 2002 “No Child Left Behind” law in an unlikely partnership with U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., a liberal stalwart. That law tied federal funding to educational outcomes, principally measured through testing. It offered government-supported vouchers as an option for those where education was deemed below standard.
Over time, bipartisan support for the law gave way to a renewed sense among conservatives that public education had only become more bureaucratic and larded with taxpayer cash while still leaving children poorly prepared to compete in a global economy.
In the Trump era, agency blamed for waste, wokeness
The Education Department has remained a favorite GOP punching bag in more recent U.S. election cycles.
It was one of the three agencies that former Texas Gov. Rick Perry pledged to eliminate during his 2012 presidential campaign (though not the one he memorably failed to name onstage during a televised debate).
Trump followed suit during his 2016 campaign, pledging to drastically cut the Education Department and lamenting “waste" within the agency.
But when he took office in 2017, he focused on reforming the agency, not eliminating it. Trump tapped school choice activist Betsy DeVos as his education secretary and focused on increasing the flow of public money toward private schools, a long-held conservative policy goal with passionate support from the religious right.
DeVos also waded into social issues: She changed the way that sexual assault disputes are litigated on college campuses, generally building in more protections for students accused of misconduct, and she rolled back guidance issued by President Barack Obama regarding transgender students and racial disparities on college campuses.
Arizona college becomes a lightning rod
Arizona Republicans' antagonism toward the Education Department only grew during the Biden administration, when the agency took aim at a Christian university based in Phoenix.
In 2023, the department fined Grand Canyon University in Phoenix $37.7 million for "deceiving" students in its marketing of doctoral degrees, after an investigation found most students paid thousands more than the advertised cost.
Republicans rallied behind GCU.
While Trump faced his own legal battles on the campaign trail, GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill portrayed the school as another victim of an overzealous and "weaponized" government.
"Of all the things going on in the world and with all that’s wrong with the higher education system in America, the Biden Admin(istration) is choosing to target a private Christian school," Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., wrote on social media at the time. "Says a lot."
"The Department of Education continues to fail to properly acknowledge GCU’s nonprofit status, long recognized by the IRS, and disregards the independent reviews that were completed," Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., wrote. "GCU is being mistreated and targeted for its religious views and for being the largest Christian university in the country."
So far during his second term, Trump has signaled he is serious about axing the Education Department altogether. This week, he is reportedly considering signing an executive order to begin the process, though he would need Congress’ approval to get rid of the agency.
Arizona as educational innovators
For about 30 years now, Arizona, in particular, has served as a state where conservative policy was put into place.
The state helped break ground on public charter schools, school tuition organizations that help subsidize private schooling, and mass voucher offerings for parents wanting something other than traditional local, district schools for their children.
Critics have long pointed to a common theme of Republican supporters draining public schools of resources, but the GOP has held a nearly unbroken hold over the Arizona Legislature in that span, suggesting a core of public support.
Arizona's current superintendent of public schools, Republican Tom Horne, has served multiple stints in that post and campaigned most recently against “woke” policies in public schools.
His elective success, along with Trump’s most recent win, also suggest most Arizona voters are receptive to an agenda more in line with Republican aims.