When Ronald Reagan was campaigning to succeed Jimmy Carter, one of his core campaign pledges was eliminating the Department of Education. After he defeated Carter in a landslide, Reagan reiterated the pledge during his first State of the Union address. “The budget plan I submitted to you,” Reagan told Congress, “will realize major savings by dismantling the Department of Education.” But Congress — specifically Democrats in the House of Representatives — ultimately rejected the idea, so Reagan moved on.
Nevertheless, Republicans kept promising to get rid of the DOE for many years. In 1996, after Gingrich led the “revolution” in Congress, the GOP platform stated: “The Federal government has no constitutional authority to be involved in school curricula or to control jobs in the marketplace. This is why we will abolish the Department of Education.” But that never…
