POLITICO Nightly: How the Department of Education ended up on the chopping block

By Samantha Latson Donald Trump speaks at a press conference with Linda McMahon in 2019 at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. | Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images BACK TO THE STATES — President-elect Donald Trump insists that he wants to eliminate the Department of Education “very early” in his administration. The idea, he has said in speeches, is to “send all education work and needs back to the states.” The woman that he’s chosen to lead the department for now — Linda McMahon, who served as the administrator of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term — is charged with dismantling the Biden administration’s education policy and spearheading Trump’s priorities. Trump is largely concerned with eliminating what he sees as a leftward shift in education policy — destroying “wokeness” and “left-wing indoctrination” in schools. Linda McMahon Lying About Education Degree 'Disqualifying': Attorney NEWSWEEK NEA President on Linda McMahon: “Our students and our nation deserve so much better than Betsy DeVos 2.0.” NEA ‘Education Is Not Entertainment': What This Educator Wants Linda McMahon to Know EDUCATION WEEK Linda McMahon, Trump’s Education pick, was sued for allegedly enabling sexual abuse of children CNN Fully eliminating the education department would be a bold, controversial swing at education policy — and it could be dead on arrival. The president would likely need 60 votes in the Senate to fully abolish the Department of Education, a significant hill to climb with Republicans holding onto a 53-vote majority. Still, there are other ways for Trump and McMahon to achieve their objectives — by gutting federal education spending, which would essentially render the education department toothless. It wouldn’t be the first time a Republican president sought to eliminate the department. A federal education agency is a relatively new invention; the Department of Education existed in a different form for a brief stint between 1867 and 1868, but was created in its modern form by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. Almost immediately, Republicans took issue with the agency. There was a political dimension to the pushback — critics claimed Carter’s decision to establish the department was a gift to the teachers’ union — as well as an ideological one, grounded in the traditional resistance to the idea of federally control over education. Ronald Reagan took a swing at dismantling the department, pledging to do so in a 1981 address to the nation , but his efforts stalled due to a lack of congressional support. Now, Trump will try his hand. While convincing Congress to straightforwardly abolish the education department sounds like a long shot, Trump’s efforts are grounded in the debate surrounding the culture wars, rather than in other more esoteric areas of education policy. CRITICAL RACE THEORY IS NOT TAUGHT IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. THIS IS BABBLE CREATED BY KOCH SEEKING TO DESTROY PUBLIC EDUCATION! IT'S TIME TO STOP BELIEVING MAGA LIES & GATHER FACTS! THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION COULD & SHOULD PROMOTE PROVIDING THE BEST EDUCATION POSSIBLE FOR ALL CHILDREN! ACROSS THE NATION THERE ARE WIDE DISPARITIES IN PUBLIC EDUCATION - MOSTLY RED STATES - FAILING CHILDREN HORRIBLY! IN MANY OF THESE STATES, RESIDENTS ARE DENIED ACCESS TO THE INTERNET OR CABLE PROGRAMMING THAT WOULD PROVIDE INFORMATION LACKING IN SCHOOLS.  SEVERAL STATES PROMOTING UNCONSTITUTIONAL ISSUES SUCH AS 10 COMMANDMENTS OR BIBLES IN CLASSROOMS ARE A CHILDISH DESTRACTION FOR THEIR FAILURES, PRODUCING UNEDUCATED ADULTS UNABLE TO COMPETE IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY.    On his campaign website , Trump outlined a few broad priorities, including eliminating federal funding for any school or program teaching Critical Race Theory; calling for investigations into school districts engaging in “race-based” discrimination; abolishing tenure for teachers for grades K through 12; and tossing DEI. Opinions about each of these policy priorities individually — as well as the wholesale elimination of the Department of Education — wildly diverge among policy scholars and experts. Nightly recently spoke with one — Kevin Kosar , a senior fellow at the center-right American Enterprise Institute who has written extensively about these ongoing debates — in order to better understand the role of the education department and the history of the fight. This interview has been edited. DISAPPOINTING THAT POLITICO CHOSE TO INTERVIEW A BIASED PERSON FROM AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE FOR THIS!  American Enterprise Institute – Bias and Credibility MEDIA BIAD/FACT CHECK What’s the value of a federal Department of Education? What are the drawbacks? The Department of Education has a lot of programs within it that address myriad facets of K-12 school and post-secondary schooling. Some of the programs are ones that really are appropriate for the federal government, such as aid to American Indian schools and collecting statistics on the performance of America’s schools and student learning levels. Other programs, however, are geared toward trying to address various niche local issues, like funding for classroom technologies. These latter programs may be prime candidates for abolition and returning responsibility to the states. Donald Trump says he wants to abolish the department — what would that actually look like in practice? The first question he has to address is, “Am I abolishing the department — or the department and the programs?” Presumably he intends to try to do the former. Regardless, either way he will need to work with Congress to get a statute enacted, and they will need to decide where to assign the federal education programs (like aid to benefit special education students) they want to keep. And all of this will have to be done with some thought to the multi-ethnic, multi-class voters who supported Trump and GOP legislators.  CATERING TO TRUMP VOTERS? If Trump follows through on his promise to abolish the education department or is able to largely de-fang it, are states equipped to take on those duties? What would need to change about the education system?  States will be forced to rework their administrative units, who spend a lot of time completing paperwork related to federal funding, and reorient more of them towards carrying out programs. There also is the matter of funding. If the Trump administration and Congress cut funds, well, these states will need to replace that money or figure out how to economize. But, if the Trump administration and Congress decide to not reduce the money but instead to roll the money for these various education programs into broad block grants, well, states will benefit. They will see the same funding but a decrease in costly paperwork and reporting requirements. PROSPEROUS BLUE STATES ARE SUBSIDIZING FAILED RED STATES & MOSTLY RED STATES FAIL TO EDUCATE AS REPORTS INDICATE! US NEWS STATES RANKINGS How does the story of the first Department of Education — established in 1867 and then dismantled by 1868 — and the reestablishment of the department in 1979 explain education politics today?  It is a reminder that schooling has always been a local and state matter first and foremost, and that any federal effort to insert itself into this policy area is fraught. WRONG! THE DISPARITY IN EDUCATION HIGHLIGHTS WHY FEDERAL OVERSIGHT IS REQUIRED! Relatively speaking, there’s not much federal funding of education, but Washington has tremendous sway over education policy and curriculum — can you explain that gap?  The federal government plays an outsized role by leveraging the dollars to create rules and regulations. The Department of Education attaches “conditions of aid” to all its grants, and issues regulations on how funding is used. It’s like the old saying, “He who pays the piper calls the tunes.” If Trump is unsuccessful — or loses interest — in actually abolishing the Department of Education, what do you think his federal education policy will ultimately look like? What’s the most likely outcome of this fight? I imagine that education policy will change only modestly due to the fact that it is a shared enterprise between the federal government, states, and localities. Big changes come slowly. My hope is that reform will free up states to innovate more in determining the ways they educate students. As any teacher will tell you, one size does not suit all students. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at slatson@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @samanthalatson . Programming note: Nightly will be off for the holidays between Dec. 25 and Jan. 3. We’ll return to your inboxes on Monday, Jan. 6.   You read POLITICO for trusted reporting. Now follow every twist of the lame duck session with Inside Congress . We track the committee meetings, hallway conversations, and leadership signals that show where crucial year-end deals are heading. Subscribe now .     What'd I Miss? THIS INFORMATION WAS PUBLIC & WIDELY KNOWN.  ‘Close Friend’ of Matt Gaetz Asked Court to Destroy Records of Drug-Fueled Underage Sex Party   Chris Dorworth, who allegedly hosted a sex party at which Gaetz and a 17-year-old girl were present, has asked a court to expunge records containing details about the event. THE DAILY BEAST Trump Pick Matt Gaetz Accused of Participating in Up to 10 Drug-Fueled Orgies A lawyer for two accusers of the Trump attorney general nominee is pledging to spill the beans. THE DAILY BEAST — Ethics report alleges Gaetz paid 17-year-old for sex: A yearslong House Ethics Committee investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz found “substantial evidence” that the Florida Republican committed statutory rape , solicited prostitutes and used illegal drugs, according to a copy of the report obtained by POLITICO. The report’s most explosive allegation, which Gaetz has long denied, is that he had sex twice with a 17-year-old girl at a party in July 2017, when he was 35 and serving in the House. Ethics Committee investigators found that he later paid the girl — part of a trend laid out in the report of him paying women after sexual encounters. — D.C. police officer convicted of leaking info to Proud Boys head: A federal judge has convicted a former Washington, D.C. police officer for obstructing an investigation into Enrique Tarrio , the former national leader of the Proud Boys in the weeks before Jan. 6, 2021. Former D.C. police Lt. Shane Lamond covered up his extensive communications with Tarrio about an investigation into Tarrio’s role in burning a Black Lives Matter banner in December 2020 after a pro-Trump march, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled today after a two-week bench trial. Jackson said Lamond fed Tarrio crucial pieces of information about the banner-burning probe. That information helped Tarrio make plans about his own upcoming travel to Washington, D.C. — anticipating that he would be arrested — so he could guide the Proud Boys as they prepared to descend on Washington, D.C. for what later became the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The far-right group, known for street fights with antifa activists, aligned itself with Trump after the 2020 election, and hundreds of its members formed the vanguard of the mob that breached the Capitol. Tarrio was convicted of seditious conspiracy last year for his role in orchestrating aspects of the attack and was sentenced to a 22-year prison term, the longest of any Jan. 6 defendant. Jackson also found Lamond guilty on three charges of lying to investigators about his relationship with Tarrio. In some ways, though, Jackson’s harshest commentary was reserved for Tarrio, who testified on Lamond’s behalf in the case. Jackson described Tarrio as “an awful witness” who appeared to be trying to “advance his own agenda” on the stand. That agenda, she said, was not entirely clear but included efforts to attack the legitimacy of his seditious conspiracy conviction and appeared in some ways to be a bid to obtain a pardon, to reassert his leadership of and loyalty to the Proud Boys and to perhaps rebut suggestions he had been a “snitch.” She described him as “flippant,” “grandiose” and “obnoxious.” “That was Tarrio’s personal performance,” she said, agreeing not to hold his recalcitrant testimony against Lamond. Nevertheless, Jackson said Lamond was guilty of the four charges he faced because he repeatedly misled colleagues about the extent of his contacts with Tarrio during the investigation of the banner burning. He initiated the use of Telegram, an encrypted communications app, for conversations with the Proud Boys leader and deleted their chats, and he repeatedly informed Tarrio about the status of the case against him. Though Lamond told others that Tarrio was a key source of information about the Proud Boys movements in Washington, Jackson said that by December 2020 — “a critical time for the country,” she noted — the relationship had reversed, with Lamond acting more like Tarrio’s source. Lamond’s sentencing is set for April 3. — Bill Clinton hospitalized in Washington after fever : Former President Bill Clinton has been hospitalized in Washington after developing a fever . Clinton was admitted today to Georgetown University Medical Center for “testing and observation,” spokesperson Angel Ureña said. Clinton recently released his new memoir, “Citizen: My Life After the White House” last month. The 42nd president hit the campaign trail for Vice President Kamala Harris in October and spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August. THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION TRUMP PRESIDED OVER A COSTLY GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN 2018-2019 THAT JEOPARDIZED NATIONAL SECURITY...DAFFY DON DIDN'T GET HIS DEBT CEILING VOTE TO BLAME ON PRESIDENT BIDEN! TRUMP TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY CAUSED THE DEFICIT  $7 TRILLION THAT PRESIDENT ELON MUSK & VIVEK RAMASWAMY ENJOY - TRUMP PLANS MORE TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY! TRUMP, PRESIDENT MUSK & RAMASWAMY PROMOTED A SHUTDOWN!  DEMOCRATS PROTECTED THE NATION, AVERTED ANOTHER TRUMP SHUTDOWN!  UNHAPPY COUPLE — After the House passed a shutdown-averting spending bill Friday, a very relieved Speaker Mike Johnson proclaimed to reporters that President-elect Donald Trump was “certainly happy about this outcome.” Not by a long shot. Amid the chaos in Washington, POLITICO’s Rachael Bade was in Palm Beach talking to people close to the past and future president and called up other confidants afterward . This much became clear: Not only is Trump unhappy with the funding deal, he’s unhappy with Johnson, too. He’s unhappy that he didn’t get the debt ceiling hike he made clear he wanted. He felt blindsided by the initial deal Johnson struck with Democrats. And, in the end, he was unimpressed with the entire chaotic process, which left the incoming administration questioning whether Johnson is capable of managing an even thinner majority next year. TRUMP NOMINEES ARE INEXPERIENCED INCOMPETENTS! KEEP WATCHING! TURF WARFARE — President-elect Donald Trump has tapped multiple people for overlapping foreign affairs posts. Get ready for turf battles and confusion over who’s in charge . The positions include special envoys whose exact responsibilities are unusually vague and that echo roles traditionally played by ambassadors, assistant secretaries of State and National Security Council staffers. There’s a nominee for special envoy for the United Kingdom whose job description sounds similar to the ambassador’s. There are multiple special envoys or advisers for the Middle East, as well as one for all of Latin America. There’s even an envoy for “special missions” with a mandate that could be anything. AROUND THE WORLD Russian President Vladimir Putin and Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico meet at the Kremlin. | Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP BREAKING RANKS — Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico held one-on-one talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of a bid to secure continued access to cheap Russian fossil fuels. Fico’s decision to travel to Russia for trade talks will prove controversial among his fellow EU leaders, and defies the bloc’s public commitments to end its reliance on Moscow for gas imports. Fico said in a post on Facebook that he and Putin had “exchanged views on the military situation in Ukraine, the possibility of an early peaceful end to the war, and mutual relations between the Slovak Republic and the Russian Federation, which I intend to standardize.” The leftist-populist Slovak politician arrived in the country for what Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov called a “working visit,” posed for pictures and shook hands with Putin. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost three years ago, only two other EU heads of government have visited Putin — Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Both trips were widely condemned, with the EU’s executive arm publicly rebuking Orbán’s self-declared peace mission and insisting he had no mandate to negotiate.   POLITICO Pro's unique analysis combines exclusive transition intelligence and data visualization to help you understand not just what's changing, but why it matters for your organization. Explore how POLITICO Pro will make a difference for you.     Nightly Number 37 The number of prisoners on federal death row whose sentences President Joe Biden is commuting , a sweeping decision designed to hinder President-elect Donald Trump’s ability to rapidly resume executions. In total, there are currently 40 men sentenced to death by the federal government — Biden will turn 37 of those sentences into life without parole. The move does nothing for people sentenced to death in state courts, which far outnumber the federal tally. RADAR SWEEP MAKING A CHRISTMAS CLASSIC — “It’s a Wonderful Life,” made in 1946, has become arguably the most famous Christmas classic movie of all time. But it wasn’t always that way — when the film first came out, many critics derided it as overly sentimental or idealized. Over time, though, it has taken on new relevance, especially as issues of mental health have become more openly discussed in American culture. Jimmy Stewart’s leading performance remains especially resonant as he imbued it with his own trauma from his time in the service in World War II; “It’s a Wonderful Life” was the first film he made after he returned. Read Adam Valente in the BBC on how this movie turned over time into the classic we all know it as today. Parting Image On this date in 1992: Then-President George Bush, leaving for a vacation at Camp David, Md., wished "everybody a merry Christmas," including the incoming Clinton administration and reporters. | Doug Mills/AP Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   Follow us

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