Education

DeSantis on Trump’s Education Overhaul: ‘Congress Must Finish the Job’

Published

March 21, 2025

In an exclusive interview on The Ingraham Angle, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made a forceful case for dismantling the Department of Education, a move that President Trump has already set in motion. DeSantis praised Trump’s action as the “biggest step by far” toward eliminating federal overreach in education, but he made one thing clear: Congress must act to finish the job.

The Case Against the Department of Education

DeSantis laid out how the federal education bureaucracy has been weaponized against states that reject progressive policies. He pointed to Florida’s experience as an example.

“Think about what we’ve had to deal with in Florida,” DeSantis said. “Four years ago, we led on the issue of women’s sports, as we typically lead. So we said we’re gonna protect women’s sports. The Biden administration, through their Department of Education, responded by threatening to take away school lunch money for poor kids.”

That kind of federal pressure, he argued, is exactly why education decisions should be returned to the states.

“Let us make the decisions on education,” he said. “We’re obviously going to approach it much differently in Florida than California. We have universal school choice, we have paycheck protection for teacher union dues, and many of our unions are now being decertified because a lot of teachers don’t want to write the check. We also don’t have woke in our curriculum, we do civics, we do a lot of different things, and it’s proven to be successful.”

Federal Strings and State Resistance

Critics of eliminating the Department of Education, such as teachers’ union leader Randy Weingarten, claim the agency does not control state policies. But DeSantis dismissed that argument as misleading.

“When you are sending money, you condition the money to certain behavior,” he explained. “They want to attach different strings to money and a lot of that money doesn’t even go to the state—it goes directly to school districts. So they will be working with school districts, sometimes liberal school districts, against state policy. We’re having to do all these fights for no reason.”

While Florida has been able to push back, many other states lack the economic strength to do the same. DeSantis pointed out that Florida’s economy has grown by 30 percent since he took office, allowing the state to resist federal intrusion. But not every state has that luxury, which is why, he argued, the federal government must get out of education altogether.

Trump’s Executive Action Is Just the Beginning

While Trump’s decision to dismantle the Department of Education is historic, DeSantis acknowledged that an executive order alone won’t be enough. Congress must take legislative action to permanently eliminate the agency.

“I think what President Trump can do is I think he can, from the inside, neuter the organization. But it will not be wiped off the statute books by an executive order. That has got to come from the Congress.”

“First, let’s give President Trump credit,” DeSantis said. “We’ve been talking about this for 40 years, and it’s never happened. This is the biggest step, by far.”

Still, he warned that executive orders can be reversed by future administrations. Unless Congress codifies the move into law, the next Democrat president could simply reinstate the department.

“Republicans can’t win a primary in this country by saying they want to keep the Department of Education,” DeSantis said. “So why aren’t they voting to codify this?”

Will Congress Act?

Despite Republican dominance in Congress, DeSantis expressed skepticism that lawmakers will follow through. He criticized the failure to pass lasting reforms on immigration and other key issues, warning that Trump’s executive actions must be backed by legislative support.

“This is like so many other things President Trump has done,” he noted. “They’re not codifying his immigration executive orders. They’re not codifying these things. While this is good policy in the instant, we want it to stand the test of time.”

The key question remains: Will Congress step up and finally eliminate the Department of Education, or will entrenched interests block real reform once again?