Many in Egypt were surprised when President Trump announced the dismantling of the Department of Education, adding it to a list of institutions and agencies he wished to eliminate. The reasoning behind this decision includes achieving efficiency in the federal government, saving over $2 trillion in expenditures, and countering the expansion of federal services which he attributes to Democratic and liberal ideologies.
This "Trumpian" step does not signal the end of education, as perceived by those who overlook the federal nature of the American state, which consists of fifty states each with its own constitution, parliament, supreme court, and presidential elections. Rather, the move suggests the relocation of "federal" influence over education, which is supposed to be a public matter under state authority.
For a long period, there was no Department of Education, and the one being dismantled was established in 1979. It employed 4,200 people who did not manage the educational process but instead encouraged educational trends by providing federal funds to support less fortunate states, expanding minority admission, accommodating new immigrants, meeting increasing educational demands, or establishing new universities specialized in growing fields.
Trump's action wasn't solely motivated by financial or efficiency concerns but also aimed to satisfy the electoral base that brought him to the White House. Generally, Trump's voters hailed from conservative and traditional states in the central and southern U.S., which rely on traditional production sources like agriculture, industry, and mining—products of the first and second industrial revolutions—as opposed to coastal states on the oceans, which depend on the third and fourth revolutions.
Trump-supporting states were motivated by cultural and ideological reasons concerning the role of religion in education, the extent to which schools accept students' biological diversity, racial equality, and exclusivity for those who prefer social segregation by race and color.