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Education Secretary Linda McMahon pushed back hard this week against the predictable chorus of anti-Trump voices insisting the administration is “defunding education” and harming students, calling those accusations flatly false and politically driven. McMahon framed the move as a “hard reset” to return real authority to the states and free parents and teachers from Washington’s chokehold. The transcript of her remarks makes clear this is a deliberate policy, not chaos — and Americans tired of federal failure should welcome accountability.
Conservatives should celebrate that someone in Washington is finally willing to confront one of the most costly, bloated federal agencies, not coddle it. McMahon has signaled massive staffing changes and a “final mission” to shrink the Education Department’s footprint so states can do the work that local communities actually do best. This isn’t wrecking schools; it’s dismantling a dysfunctional bureaucracy that has failed our kids for decades in exchange for trendy agendas from coastal elites.
Predictably, the left and legacy media are shrieking that sending education back to where curriculum and accountability belong is some form of cruelty. Their fearmongering about “defunding” is a smear designed to protect a federal empire and its jobs, not students. McMahon’s point — that most American education dollars come from states and localities while federal bureaucrats micromanage from afar — undercuts the Democrats’ narrative and exposes their true concern: losing power.
The conservative argument is simple and practical: federal pass-throughs and regulatory compliance siphon resources away from classrooms and into paperwork. McMahon repeatedly noted that the federal department doesn’t teach a single child and that states already supply the lion’s share of school funding, so streamlining federal functions gets money and autonomy back to principals and teachers. If you care about reading scores and real career-ready education, you should support cutting the fat and putting decisions back where parents can hold officials accountable.
Do not be fooled by performative outrage about special education and vulnerable students; bureaucrats weaponize compassion when their budgets are threatened. While critics warn of dangers, the administration is moving many education functions into other agencies and insisting funding flows uninterrupted to states so services continue while the heavy-handed federal oversight ends. That’s governance, not neglect — a conservative path to empower schools, prioritize core learning, and restore local control.
Now is the time for Congress to step up and codify the reforms McMahon is implementing so future administrations can’t use the Department as a vehicle for ideological initiatives. Lawmakers who truly care about students should work to lock in parental rights, school choice, and the science of reading — policies that deliver results rather than slogans. This is a moment for bold conservative leadership, not timid defense of a failed federal experiment.
Every patriotic American who believes in family, freedom, and common-sense education policy should back Secretary McMahon’s mission to get Washington out of the classroom. The people who run the Department have been more interested in grant rules and woke programs than in literacy and vocational opportunity, and the political class’s panic speaks volumes. Let’s stand with parents, support our states, and demand an education system that prepares kids for real life, not one that subsidizes bureaucrats and ideological theater in D.C.
