That’s a radical change. Let’s examine what the results of that would likely be:

Republicans arguing to shut down the DoE isn’t a new thing. Republicans have been against it since the Reagan administration. Newt Gingrich argued for it in 1994. As did Bob Dole in 1996. So how worried should we be that this might actually happen? Hard to say.

Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and an executive editor of Education Next, dismisses talk of shuttering the Department as “hollow chatter.” [Source]

They’re also unclear on what they mean by “abolish the department.” I’ll explain.

• Does it mean completely eliminating all federal education programs and staff? (Difficult to do.)
• Does it mean just handing the programs to other agencies or cabinet departments?
• Does it mean turning all of these programs into block programs for the states? If so, how much federal direction and oversight would there be, and who would be charged with providing it?
• Does it mean cutting funding for Special Education, Title I, or Pell Grants along with it? (A complete elimination means yes.)

“Let’s shut down the head of the snake, the Department of Education,” Vivek Ramaswamy said. “Take that $80 billion, put it in the hands of parents across this country.” [Source]

If you think American parents will see a dime of that money, I have a bridge to sell you. If the money went anywhere at all, it would be to the individual states. That’s assuming they’re not going to force states to shoulder the costs themselves, like they proposed with disaster relief.

From linked article 21:

“On student loans, Butcher says the elimination could lead to the federal government getting “out of the business of awarding student loans, and then for what remains it would be moved to the Department of the Treasury.”

So, there is some evidence that they’re speaking of a total elimination, not a shuttering that preserves some programs. So what would a second Trump administration promise for K-12?

• Title I, the $18 billion federal fund that supports low-income students, would disappear in a decade.
• Federal special education funds would flow to school districts as block grants with no strings attached, or even to savings accounts for parents to use on private school or other education expenses.
• The U.S. Department of Education would be eliminated.
• The federal government’s ability to enforce civil rights laws in schools would be scaled back.

I’m sure there will be more details in the upcoming Department of Education section, so I’ll wait to get into absolute specifics of what they recommend.

Full contextual analysis of Section 3: The General Welfare here.