The Supreme Court ruled in favor of major layoffs at the Department of Education Monday. It’s a huge win for those who believe the department was a failure and in need of a huge reduction in size.
McMahon v. State of New York was a 6-3 decision, with the liberal justices dissenting. The case had been brought against Education Secretary Linda McMahon by a variety of lawsuits after she removed 1,400 employees from the Department of Education’s staff.
Specifically, the Supreme Court ruled that a lower-level federal court could not block the firing of Department of Education employees while the case was ongoing.
“Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies,” McMahon said in a statement.
President Donald Trump, who signed the executive order that led to the Department of Education layoffs, also celebrated the decision.
“The United States Supreme Court has handed a Major Victory to Parents and Students across the Country, by declaring the Trump Administration may proceed on returning the functions of the Department of Education BACK TO THE STATES,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
I agree that it’s a huge win for the Trump administration and the American people on possibly multiple fronts.
The biggest win, of course, has to do with the Department of Education itself. Drawing down the agency in a lead up to potentially fully abolishing it is a good idea. It’s failed to achieve its assumed goals to improve American education since its creation in 1979.
As Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and the Director of the Center for Education Policy Lindsey Burke wrote in 2024, the Department of Education has been an “abject failure.”
“Nearly 45 years after its creation under former President Jimmy Carter, high school seniors’ math and reading outcomes remain stagnant,” Roberts and Burke wrote. “Worse still, the academic achievement gap between the United States’ poorest and wealthiest students, a gap of four grade levels, has not narrowed since the department’s inception.”
If anything, American academics have steadily declined since the creation of the Department of Education, which is why I want to pull my hair out when I see comments like this from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
American children do deserve a quality education. Unfortunately, that’s not what the Department of Education is providing. Though it does sometimes give money to illegal aliens.
The Department of Education’s failures have come at an enormous, mushrooming price tag. Not only has the department grown immensely in size and scope, but administrative bloat has occurred in schools across the country in part due to compliance with federal rules.
K-12 and higher education is now deeply reliant on federal largesse. Because of that reality, education can be manipulated at the federal level.
“By centralizing U.S. education—a responsibility historically entrusted to states and local communities—Washington has inserted itself between parents and schools, often with devastating consequences,” Roberts and Burke wrote.
It should be no surprise that the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union, is having a conniption after the Supreme Court’s decision.
“Everyone who cares about America’s students and public schools should be appalled by the Supreme Court’s premature intervention in this case today, which stays preliminary relief ordered by the lower courts. Today’s decision does not resolve the underlying merits of Trump’s unlawful plan to eliminate the Department of Education,” National Education Association President Becky Pringle said in a statement, according to the New York Post.
Let’s be honest, these big teachers unions are hardly for the students or education. The National Education Association has tried to paint Trump as a fascist, but apparently can’t even spell the word. Yes, really.
Beyond parody.
It’s about time this broken, infernal machine that is the Department of Education gets some serious limitations and reductions. Teachers unions aren’t going to be able to stand in the way of that now.
And may see even more progress after Monday’s ruling.
While the Supreme Court’s decision was limited to the lower court’s stay on the layoffs, this could generally mean that the nation’s highest court won’t block future removals of executive branch employees.
The Trump administration still clearly aims to continue reducing the size of the Department of Education and other agencies. It seems lower courts will be given less leeway to dictate to the chief executive how to run the executive branch.
If that’s the case, it’s a very good sign for future reforms. It’s a win for education and constitutional government.