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The Department of Education just took what experts are calling its biggest step yet toward the dustbin of history, and conservatives across America are saying it’s about time. The Trump administration announced a historic interagency agreement that will shift the massive federal student loan portfolio — nearly $1.7 trillion worth — from the Education Department to the Treasury, as detailed in the White House’s official press release from January 2024. This isn’t just bureaucratic reshuffling; this is dismantling the beast one piece at a time.
President Trump made eliminating the Department of Education a cornerstone of his 2024 campaign, and unlike most politicians, he actually meant it. Within days of taking office, he signed an executive order directing his administration to start the dissolution process, as reported by Fox News in their coverage of the inauguration events. Now we’re seeing the proof of concept in real time, and the results speak for themselves.
Under Secretary Nicholas Kent didn’t mince words about what this means, according to an interview he gave to The Washington Times. These interagency agreements are designed to show Congress, families, and everyday Americans that the federal government can function without a bloated Department of Education siphoning resources and pushing ideological indoctrination. Federal grant aid and student loans will continue flowing to borrowers — just without the massive overhead and progressive social engineering that has defined the department for decades.
The Cato Institute’s Andrew Gillen noted something crucial in his analysis published on the Cato website: previous interagency agreements were relatively small potatoes. This student loan move is different. It’s the biggest staffing and budgetary component of the entire department. When you move the largest piece of the pie to Treasury, you’re not tinkering around the edges — you’re proving that the whole department is unnecessary.
Secretary Linda McMahon put it perfectly in her statement to Breitbart News: cutting through Washington’s red tape is essential to the final mission. While the department bureaucrats are busy partnering with other agencies to improve federal programs, they’re also conducting a 50-state tour to gather best practices and empower local leaders. The message is clear — education belongs in the hands of states, communities, and parents, not federal bureaucrats in Washington.
The timing couldn’t be better. The department’s announcement specifically called out the Biden administration’s catastrophic mismanagement of the federal student loan portfolio, as outlined in the Department of Education’s latest annual report. Less than 40% of borrowers have arranged repayment plans, and nearly a quarter are in default. That’s not a functioning system; that’s a disaster that hardworking taxpayers are expected to clean up.
For decades, conservatives have argued that the Department of Education represents everything wrong with federal overreach — massive budgets, minimal results, and an endless appetite for meddling in local affairs. Now we’re witnessing the dismantling in real time, piece by piece, proof of concept by proof of concept. And the left will scream about catastrophe, but the reality is simpler: when something doesn’t work, you stop doing it. The Department of Education hasn’t worked for a very long time. Providence watches over the bold.
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