WASHINGTON – Over the past year, congressional Republicans have cheered onPresident Donald Trump's quest to dismantle the Education Department.
Yet those same lawmakers just reached a deal with Democrats to givewhat's leftof the agency more money – not less – compared to last year.
Congress' annual appropriations bills, whichTrump signed into law Feb. 3, fully retained spending for many of the department's programs, funding things likespecial educationand afterschool activities. Even programs the Trump administration hasunilaterally cut or ignored, prompting lawsuits, were supported at roughly their usual levels.
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A mixed-bag victory for Democrats, the bipartisan dealmaking represented a quiet rebuke from GOP lawmakers of Trump's statedcrusade to curb the federal role in education policy. And the end result – which set aside roughly $80 billion to the Education Department for fiscal year 2026 – underlined the political limitations ofone of the White House's most nebulous goals.
It also highlighted the logistical difficulty of trying to fully do away with an agency whoseentrenched functions are relied upon(though in limited ways) by states, schools and students across the country. The Education Department implements widely popular programs that, among other things, protect students with disabilities, help schools hire counselors and make college more affordable.
For the last half-century, elements of the GOP in Washington have been trying to do away with the agency, a creation of the Jimmy Carter era. Doing so, however, would require an act of Congress (and support from at least some Democrats).It's never been quite as easy as it sounds.
"My key takeaway is that Congress rejected virtually everything that the president requested," said Sarah Abernathy, the executive director of the nonprofit Committee for Education Funding.
Amid Trump'syearlong dismantling of the Education Department, she said, "Republicans in Congress have taken a hands-off approach – until this bill."
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Education Department to remain broken up (for now)
While the legislation wasn't precisely what Democrats wanted, it routed money to the most important places, said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Washington, who said she was familiar with the funding negotiations (and used to serve on the House's education committee).
"One of the big challenges was how do we stop the administration from either misusing the money we give them, impounding it or rescinding it," she told USA TODAY. "By being much more specific about what we're doing with the money and what we intend for it, it should give us more leverage in the courts and elsewhere."
The situation is still far from ideal for Democrats. They tried (and failed) to prevent Education Secretary Linda McMahon fromimplementing any more layoffs in the future, even though her agency hasalready been cut down to a fractionof what it was just a year ago.
Read Secretary McMahon in USA TODAY:'The shutdown proved just how little the Department of Education will be missed'
One of the final sticking points in the Capitol Hill negotiations was over a provision that would've prevented Trump from continuing to break up the agency and sent its workers and their programs to other corners of the federal government.
In November, Secretary McMahon announced six so-called "interagency agreements" todetail many of her employeesover to the Departments of Labor, State, Interior and Health and Human Services. That restructuring has already begun: The programs impacted include Title I funding for low-income schools, historically Black colleges and universities, charter school grants and many other key functions.
Read more:Trump keeps flattening the Education Department. Will students notice?
Democrats wanted to reverse those agreements by including a measure to reverse them, but they were unsuccessful.
"We will continue to deliver successes through these partnerships, further solidifying the proof of concept that interagency agreements provide the same protections, higher quality outcomes, and even more benefits for students, grantees, and other education stakeholders," Education Department Press Secretary Savannah Newhouse said in a statement to USA TODAY.
Read more:Their time at the Education Department may be over. The grieving isn't.
Trump admin to brief Congress regularly on Education Dept.
While Democrats didn't get one of their main asks, they forced a compromise, compelling Trump administration officials to brief them biweekly on the Education Department's ongoing efforts to move its offices to other agencies. Plus, they included language clarifying the limits around Trump's reorganization (mainly that McMahon can't redirect money and resources that must legally stay at the Education Department).
Democrats and advocates saw regular briefings on the Hill as a chance for more accountability. Rachel Gittleman, the president of the union for Education Department workers, said lawmakers delivered a clear rejection of the Trump administration's efforts to transfer employees to other agencies.
"We hope Congress holds their feet to the fire," she said.
Republicans, meanwhile, said they felt the compromise vindicated Trump's Education Department reshuffling, justifying their vote to send more money to it.
"A lot of those offices that are getting the money are perfectly well designed to be in other agencies," Sen. Mike Rounds told USA TODAY. The South Dakota Republicanintroduced a bill last year in Congressto eliminate the Education Department entirely. Without support from Democrats, and wariness from some key Republicans, the legislation was dead on arrival.
That failed effort, coupled with the success of the Education Department funding bill, is indicative of a key problem for Republicans in the Trump 2.0 era, said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, who sits on the Senate's education committee.
They don't want to flout the leader of their party, she told USA TODAY. Yet they also don't want to kill off popular Education Department programs relied on by their constituents.
"The place where the Republicans have landed is certainly not an embrace of dumping the Department of Education. But it's not full-throated pushback against those who want to end it," Warren said. "That's the uneasy moment where we find ourselves."
Zachary Schermele is a congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:How the Education Department is alive despite Trump's bid to kill it
