President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education represent an important first step towards educational reform, Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn said in a March 11 appearance on the “Dana Loesch Show.” 

“If they just took the 50% of the money they saved by getting rid of the bureaucracy, and burned it, it would be a net gain,” Arnn said in the 13-minute long interview, which was one among several media appearances on outlets such as Fox News and Newsmax related to the Trump administration’s efforts to reimagine education at the federal level. 

In a March 15 interview with Mario Nawfal on “69 X Minutes,” Arnn said there were currently more public education bureaucrats than the number of publicly employed teachers. Arnn compared the current state of the Department of Education to Soviet Russia and modern-day China, both of which were characterized by oppressive state control. 

“Of all the things in the world that could be centralized, education should be the last,” Arnn said. “Education happens in the soul of the student. If it doesn’t happen there, it doesn’t happen. Control of the system should be as near to the student as possible.”

 Dean of Masters in Education and Professor of Education Daniel Coupland said he agreed. 

“The family is the central unit of a healthy society,” Coupland said. “Parents, who are the first and often the best teachers, ought to be making decisions on what is best for their children.”

On March 20, President Trump signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take “all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the States.” 

In an exclusive statement to The Collegian, Arnn said the debate over the Department of Education was only part of the problem.

“The argument over the department of education is just one example of the larger issue,” Arnn said. “That issue is whether we will return to the practices of the Constitution, where the federal government is supposed to be supreme over named national matters, instead of doing the other things it does which are too numerous to count. ”

Arnn said Congress should act in concert with the president to abolish the Department of Education.

“As for the DOE, it was created in 1979-1980 by a law, which the Congress passed and the president signed,” Arnn said. “The president cannot undo that alone. I understand that the president will support a bill or bills in Congress to abolish it. In my opinion that should be done.” 

Junior Andrew VanDevere said educational outcomes had fallen since the Department of Education’s introduction.

“Since 1979, literacy rates have fallen, and educational costs have risen,” VanDevere said.

At the end of the day, Coupland said, abolishing the Department of Education would be an important first step toward renewing American Education.

“Shutting down the U. S. Department of Education will, at minimum, remind the country that education is the responsibility of states, local communities, and most importantly families,” Coupland said.