End Fed Ed Watch: March 2026
As I wrote when presenting the inaugural End Fed Ed Watch last month, there was considerable excitement about a year ago when the Trump administration was focusing on eliminating the US Department of Education. But as you would expect with any long-term effort, the energy behind it subsided. With inevitably waning national attention on ending the department and the proliferation of developments around the effort, it is easy to lose track of what is happening. End Fed Ed Watch is here to help keep you up to date.
Note that, as part of tracking what the administration has been doing, we have added a tracker showing which Department of Education functions are now being administered on a day-to-day basis by other agencies via interagency agreements.
Congress
There are currently six bills to eliminate the department. None have changed their status in the last month, except that H.R. 2691 gained a cosponsor, rising from 3 to 4.
The Administration
The Trump administration announced two new Department of Education interagency agreements: one with the State Department and one with the Department of Labor. They are the top entries on the interagency agreement tracker below.
Courts
The following are court cases directly related to the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize or eliminate the Department of Education. The only change from last month was that a federal judge denied a Department of Education motion to dismiss AEFP & IHEP v. McMahon. We also eliminated State of New York, et al. v. US Department of Education, et al., which dealt with withholding COVID-19 relief funds rather than downsizing or eliminating the department.
Cato Work
Over the previous month, Cato Center for Educational Freedom scholars published the following regarding downsizing or eliminating the Department of Education:
- “The Reform That Would Mark the Beginning of the End for the Department of Education”: At National Review, CEF research fellow Andrew Gillen explains why federal student loans should be moved to the Treasury Department as soon as possible. Treasury already has much to do with federal student lending, is focused on financial insturments, and it would be a big chunk out of the Department of Education.
You can help!
Anything missing or incorrect here? Please contact Center for Educational Freedom Director Neal McCluskey at nmccluskey@cato.org.