The economist Milton Friedman wrote that nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program. It's true that once an agency is funded and fills its cubicles with bureaucrats, advocates treat its existence as a necessity and any challenge to its continued existence as heresy no matter how well the world carried on prior to its establishment or how poorly it has performed. But we see a challenge to the usual rule in President Donald Trump's executive order to wind down the federal Department of Education. Fully eliminating the useless 45-year-old bureaucracy will require an act of Congress, but there's good reason to believe the president has room to maneuver until then.
"The Secretary of Education shall, to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely," Trump's March 20 order said in part, after citing examples of the department's expense and shortcomings.
