Why Republicans have failed to scrap the Department of Education

“That department should be abolished,” said President Ronald Reagan about the Department of Education in 1983, echoing a campaign promise. In 1995 while running for president, Lamar Alexander, a former education secretary under President George H.W. Bush, vowed to eliminate the department he once ran. In 2022 Betsy DeVos, after serving as education secretary under President Donald Trump, said she thought her department “should not exist”. In September Mr Trump himself chimed in: “I’m dying to get back to do this. We will ultimately eliminate the federal Department of Education.” Republicans have threatened to abolish it for decades. So what is taking them so long?