State and local leaders react to Trump’s executive order “eliminating” Department of Education

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Leaders in Utah have begun to react to the executive order signed by Trump that is seeking the “closure” of the Department of Education.

During a signing ceremony Thursday afternoon, President Trump said that it was about time to get rid of the department, saying, “Everybody knows it’s right, and we have to get our children educated. We are not doing well with the world of education in this country, and we haven’t for a long time.”

The order is in line with the President’s campaign promise to do away with the department, and reactions regarding the order have begun to come in from around the state. From concern, indifference, to excitement.

“While the full implications remain uncertain, any major restructuring or elimination of federal education programs will require congressional action and will likely be subject to legal review,” The Utah State Board of Education said in a statement to ABC4.com. “Regardless of any changes at the federal level, our mission remains unchanged: providing academic and organizational excellence in Utah education. We are committed to working closely with state leaders, local school districts and charter schools, and policymakers to provide stability, clarity, and guidance as more details emerge.”

During Governor Spencer Cox’s monthly press conference, he reacted positively to the news, saying that the elimination of the department might allow more money to flow to states and cut spending at the federal level.

“We can do two things we can get more money to the states and save the federal government money, which we need to do,” Cox said during the press conference. “Just by eliminating that and block granting those funds to the states. I can tell you that’s very popular on the right and the left among the governors in this country.”

Congressman Burgess Owens mirrored this view during an exclusive interview with ABC4.com. Centering his thoughts around school choice and state control.

“The overall benefit is that our kids finally. We have lost a generation or two because of the Department of Education,” Owens asserted. “The dollars we can send to the districts, to the schools themselves, and so much more can be accomplished, then having [the money] up here with bureaucrats who are doing nothing but shoveling papers and making a great lifestyle.”

The Utah Education Association released a statement regarding the order, saying that the order will have detrimental effects on public schools in the state, saying, “Dismantling the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) will have detrimental effects on Utah’s public-school students and the vital services they currently receive. Educators across our state are deeply concerned about their most vulnerable student populations.”

John Arthur, a 6th grade teacher and Utah’s 2021 teacher of the year, spoke to the concerns he has about the order, saying that his school relies on the funding DOE supplies.

“I teach in a title one school that relies on funds from the DOE to meet the learning needs of our children,” Arthur began. “If you were to tell anybody that the agency they depend on to meet some critical need in their family or in their life was not only being slashed in half but being shuttered all together … obviously, without a clear plan in place, you cannot do anything but throw your hands and say, ‘how can this be?'”

President Trump’s executive order itself does not eliminate DOE but rather orders the Secretary of Education to begin efforts “appropriate and permitted by law” to facilitate the departments closure. It further orders that services and programs that the department provides should, “ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

The elimination of the department would require an act of Congress, which Owens says might take another 4 years to codify due to small majorities in the House and Senate. However, he remains confident that this is the right path.

“Right now, we are spending billions of dollars in DC for people to have jobs,” Owens began. “What if those billions were sent out to the States? We could add onto our choice process right now and give more kids a choice.”