President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign pledges to eliminate the federal Department of Education and cancel the accreditation of “woke” universities drew new attention on Monday, as old videos of his policies were recirculated.
One video, in which Trump promises to close the Department of Education (which was established 45 years ago under President Jimmy Carter) and return power to states and local communities, actually dates back to July 2024.
Trump said:
And one other thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington D.C. and sending all education and education work and needs back to the States. We want them to run the education of our children, because they’ll do a much better job of it. You can’t do worse. We spend more money per pupil, by three times, than any other nation. And yet we’re absolutely at the bottom. We’re one of the worst. So you can’t do worse. We’re going to end education coming out of Washington D.C. We’re going to close it up — all those buildings all over the place, and [you have] people that in many cases hate our children. We’re going to send it all back to the States.
Another video, promoted Monday by Elon Musk, described a new system of accreditation to combat “woke” universities. The video dates to July 2023, but was circulated on Monday as if it had been newly announced.
The Wall Street Journal noted Monday: “President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to remake education in the U.S., pledging to exert more control over funding and classroom lessons, to curb what he views as left-leaning tendencies at universities and even to dismantle the Department of Education.” It also noted his plans to expand school choice.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.