The College Fix

ANALYSIS

President-elect Donald Trump said several times during his campaign that he would eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, but it’s a pledge that may be more rhetoric than reality.

Still, he could pick an Education Secretary and task him or her with deeply downsizing the federal bureaucracy, which costs $80 billion annually to keep afloat.

Names were floated even prior to Tuesday’s election, including former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who in 2022 also said the department “should not exist.”

“Betsy DeVos would work for Trump again if he agreed to ‘phasing out’ the Department of Education” declared an August headline in Salon.

In October, Education Week also waded into the topic, reporting: “Trump himself floated two potential candidates who he said could oversee the dismantlement of the education department: Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur who ran for the GOP nomination before dropping out and endorsing Trump, and former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York, who left Congress last year after an unsuccessful bid for governor.”

The article also cited Tiffany Justice, co-founder of the parents’ rights group Moms For Liberty, as a potential pick, as well as Cade Brumley, Louisiana’s state superintendent of education, and Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction, both of whom have done a good job beating back progressive agendas in their states.

Politico also published its ideas Wednesday, offering similar ones to Education Week but also including Glenn Youngkin in the mix. The Virginia governor’s term expires in late 2025.

“The Virginia governor built his campaign around education issues, tapping into a burgeoning parental rights movement led by suburban moms. He helped popularize calls by Republicans to end diversity, equity and inclusion topics in schools. As governor he signed executive orders to ban what he labeled ‘divisive concepts’ in classrooms,” the outlet reported.

Here are a few others who might be floated in the coming weeks:

Mitch Daniels: The Reaganesque former Indiana governor and Purdue University president has a stellar record and reputation.

Richard Corcoran: Currently he heads up the reform-minded New College of Florida. Prior to that, he served as the Speaker of the Florida House from 2016 to 2018. “During his tenure in the state House, he passed the most robust ethics and transparency laws in state history,” according to his bio. He also served as the conservative state’s commissioner of education from 2018 to 2022.

Jeanne Allen: She’s fought for education reform for decades. She “founded the Center for Education Reform over three decades ago to restore excellence to education, and built it into the nation’s leading advocate for innovation and opportunity in education,” her bio states. “CER pioneered dozens of laws providing parents with choice and launched a nationwide movement that energized millions to engage in the fight.”

MORE: Here’s everything Trump promised regarding higher ed reform during his campaign

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