On Tuesday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon issued a “reduction in force” letter to the Department of Education. Of the DOE’s 4,133 employees, only 2,183 will remain. This is the first step toward possibly dismantling the Department of Education as a whole.

The employees saw this coming, as 572 of them either entered the deferred resignation program or accepted buyouts. The others who are affected will receive full pay and benefits through June 9, so don’t feel too bad for these bureaucrats.

As McMahon made clear, “Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.”

Democrats are, of course, very upset with this move and the rumored impending executive order that would have McMahon do everything in her power legally to bring about the closure of the DOE. President Donald Trump believes that if responsibility for the education of our children is moved back to the states, many students will thrive rather than be relegated to a malaise.

An irate Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, let the cat out of the bag, fuming to podcaster Molly Jong-Fast:

We know, for example, what Texas would do. They’ll use it for vouchers. So they won’t give [federal funding] to the kids who have it now; they’ll just give it for vouchers. And frankly, what we are seeing in all the programs now — in terms of vouchers — [is that] they don’t work for kids. They basically go right now — it becomes a tax credit for people who already are sending their kids to private schools. So, it’s income redistribution.

In other words, Weingarten fears what will happen to public schools if parents utilize school choice to benefit their children. However, it’s fairly obvious that public schools are failing students across the nation. As I have pointed out before, many of our students aren’t proficient in basic skills, which makes the rest of their school experience that much harder. For example, the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress results just came out, and among fourth graders, seven out of 10 weren’t proficient in reading. This means 70% are reading below grade level. Moreover, 60% are struggling to comprehend basic math. Read those statistics again.

Nevertheless, leftists at The New York Times are already trying to spin those results by asking how we would even be able to measure whether our schools are succeeding if Trump eliminates the DOE. I’d say it’s hard for our proficiency measurements to be much worse than they already are. Moreover, why do leftists assume only the federal government, not the states, can study schooling results?

Losing DOE grants might also be a good thing in the long run. According to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, federal funding accounts for only 14% of public school funding; the other 86% is funded through state and local taxes. Fourteen percent is not an insignificant budgetary amount, but it’s worth pointing out that regardless of how much money is poured into our public schools, that’s not translating into better benchmark scores or college readiness.

Leftists also point out that dismantling the DOE is an unpopular move. According to Education Week, “More than half of voters surveyed — 58 percent — don’t want to see the Education Department nixed, compared to 29 percent who support getting rid of the department, [an All4Ed] poll found.” This poll was conducted last fall and doesn’t account for changing sentiments, especially as understanding evolves about what the DOE actually does: acting as the middleman between Congress’s education budget allocation and monies that make their way down to the schools through grants and/or student loans — the latter of which add to the bloated price tag of our once-lauded universities as opposed to improving the quality of education.

The last hope Democrats are clinging to is that formally dismantling the DOE will require 60 votes in the Senate, and Republicans are far short of that threshold. In the meantime, Secretary McMahon is streamlining and prioritizing students and their families as she seeks to carry out her duties.