When an organization fails in its mission, the employees lose their jobs.

The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Eduction, which were ordered closed for the day for what officials described as security reasons amid large-scale layoffs, are seen Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

The Left – which for this discussion includes most Democratic members of Congress, most of the media, and the top leaders at the country’s teachers’ unions – is aghast that the Trump administration just laid off about 1,300 employees at the Department of Education. That’s roughly half the staff.

National Education Association president Becky Pringle’s statement was predictably apocalyptic and predictably predictable. She said:

Firing – without cause – nearly half of the Department of Education staff means they are getting rid of the dedicated public servants who help ensure our nation’s students have access to the programs and resources to keep class sizes down and expand learning opportunities for students so they can grow into their full brilliance. The Trump administration has abandoned students, parents, and educators across the nation.”

Will someone help me here? Can someone please show me how the Department of Education has been helping American students grow into their “full brilliance?” Because the data I read says that reading scores, math scores and overall educational attainment scores have been in freefall since the Department of Education was created under Jimmy Carter in 1979.

Most Americans alive today don’t remember when American public education was the envy of the world. American public schools, under the control of the citizens in the communities that they served (that’s why we persist in calling them “independent” school districts in Texas), did an amazing job turning out young adults that were competent in math, English, history, geography, and the basic sciences.

That was then.

America now ranks fourth in the world – behind Luxembourg, Norway and Iceland – in education spending per pupil yet ranks a dismal 31^st in student achievement.

Emblazoned at the top of the Department of Education website you’ll see the words, “Fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.” The part about “equal access” harkens back to the vestiges of discrimination against black students that still existed in 1979. Let’s leave that discussion for another time and for now agree that “fostering educational excellence” is simply not happening.

What is happening is that the Department of Education is passing out money. Gobs of it. Just for the exercise I clicked on the “Grants and Programs” tab on the department website. That’s where I found the link to the “Asian American and Pacific Islander Data Disaggregation Initiative.” (No, I have no idea what that means.)

So, I dug a little deeper and learned that this program works, “…in consortia with local educational agencies to obtain and evaluate disaggregated data on English Learner AAPI subpopulations…” (Still no idea. Rule of thumb. If a federal program can’t be explained in plain English, the program is very likely a total waste of money.)

But with due respect to “data disaggregation” and all, the Department of Education cost $268 billion in 2024 and yet American kids can’t read or do math at grade level. Since its establishment in 1979, the DOE has, by any objective measure, failed to improve education in America.

If half the employees just got laid off, we should ask, “When will the rest get their pink slips?”