Why Republicans have failed to scrap the Department of Education
And why they keep promising to do so
“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?
This campaign is also demonstrating America’s democratic vitality
Let’s hope it’s not, in retrospect, the high point
What to watch for on election night, and beyond
The first clues on election night that could point to the next president
The fight to win the most unruly institution in Washington
Swing voters in House districts do not look like swing voters in the presidential election
Will Donald Trump’s bros turn out?
A strategy of courting occasional voters is risky because they are occasional voters
What are the odds of an upset in Texas or Florida?
Beating unpopular senators in Trump country may be Democrats’ only shot at holding the Senate
Why Kamala Harris’s chances of victory just jumped
Our forecast now puts her level with Donald Trump