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Trump plans to shift school funding control to local communities, has yet to pick DOE secretary

US President Joe Biden, right, and President-elect Donald Trump shake hands during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"This would be a pretty big change if it went from the federal government giving out money with all kinds of rules and regulations through a whole bunch of different programs, to the federal government consolidating almost every K-12 and giving them the money," he said.

"I think that higher education, the Department of Education, has proved itself to be just a bad administrator," McCluskey said. "The bungling of simplifying FAFSA, the student aid for. It's sort of ironic that it's making it easier, making the form easier that they just couldn't handle."

"I also think the programs are really bad," he added.

President-Elect Donald Trump has proposed a dramatic shakeup in American education. (iStock)

McCluskey said the DOE started largely as a political move to gain National Education Association support and initially focused on K-12 and student-aid funding.

Although intended to equalize funding between low- and high-income communities, its role expanded over time to include accountability measures, especially from the Reagan era onward, as concerns grew about educational quality and outcomes. 

Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Rep. Byron Donalds, Cade Brumley, Rep. Virginia Foxx, Tiffany Justice, Oklahoma public education superintendent Ryan Walters and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin could be possible contenders for the DOE secretary role.  (iStock)

This push for accountability led to the "A Nation at Risk" report in 1983 and eventually to the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, positioning the federal government as a major driver of standards and test-based accountability. 

However, backlash against centralized standard testing like Common Core led to a retreat from heavy oversight, and today the department’s primary roles are K-12 funding support, federal student aid management, and civil rights enforcement, he said.

So far, Fox News Digital has learned former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Rep. Byron Donalds, Cade Brumley, Rep. Virginia Foxx, Tiffany Justice, Oklahoma public education superintendent Ryan Walters and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin could be possible contenders for the DOE secretary role.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Trump-Vance transition team for comment.

Fox News Digital's Joshua Comins contributed to this report.