Once again, a commitment made by President Trump and the congressional candidates who rode his coat tails and campaigned on his MAGA platform has gone unfulfilled. In fact, they’ve done the exact opposite.

Many of us voted to “Make America Great Again,” thinking that it included getting the federal government out of education. But the recent increased funding and continuation of the Department of Education is doing just the opposite.

As a former member of the Colorado State Board of Education, I witnessed firsthand how the flood of federal dollars never translated into meaningful academic improvements. Instead, it mostly funded bureaucratic programs, trendy initiatives and endless compliance requirements that did little or nothing to boost actual classroom learning or student achievement.

I was genuinely excited about the MAGA promise to eliminate the Federal Department of Education. During my state board of education term, I even advocated for disbanding Colorado’s own State Board of Education and State Department of Education to achieve true local control allowing parents a greater role in their children’s education.

After my six-year term on the state board, having witnessed the realities at federal, state and local levels of public education, I could no longer support trying to fix the system from within. For this reason, I began encouraging parents to homeschool or send their children to private school. I had seen too much to go on believing that public education could be reformed in any meaningful way.

President Trump campaigned hard in 2024 on eliminating the Department of Education. Earlier this year it looked like he was fulfilling his promise and starting to disband the DOE when he moved some programs to other federal agencies. Sounds like progress, right? But moving sections around to other departments is NOT getting rid of the federal Department of Education. It’s just reshuffling the deck. Still federal control; still your tax dollars propping up a system that’s failed our children.

So much for shrinking it: Federal Department of Education Budget Actually Increased

The recent Consolidated Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2026, which President Trump signed after it passed the Republican-controlled House and Senate, actually increased the Department of Education’s (DOE) budget over last year, to about $79 billion (a $217 million bump from FY 2025 levels). More funding just perpetuates the same ineffective, top-down garbage coming out of Washington. Pouring money into a broken system only entrenches the problems instead of solving them.

According to Senator Rand Paul, the bill even includes language that forces the department to maintain enough staff to handle all its “statutory responsibilities” and blocks moving or downsizing programs and funds to other agencies. That’s confusing, since earlier President Trump moved several programs (including some postsecondary and K-12-related ones) to the Department of Labor. Rand Paul justifiably complained that they’re again pumping more money into an unconstitutional federal department while the national debt explodes by trillions every year.

President Trump and his MAGA Congress promised to eliminate federal overreach yet they just kept it alive and well funded. I am tired of being disappointed. We can’t keep letting bureaucrats break their promises.

Time to Take Back Education

In the mid-1700s, during the Founding Fathers’ childhoods, there were essentially no widespread tax funded compulsory public schools as we know them today. Modern public education didn’t emerge until the mid-19th century. In colonial America (1600s–1770s), education was a patchwork of family-based and private options: most children learned basics like reading, writing, arithmetic and religion at home from parents, family or hired tutors (especially in rural or less wealthy areas). Wealthier families commonly employed private tutors for home or small-group instruction. Some towns offered fee-based grammar schools, Latin schools or dame schools (often run by a woman at home), but these were optional, not universal or free in the modern sense.

Below is a list explaining a few of our Founding Fathers’ educational experiences:

George Washington — Largely educated at home by family and private tutors (focused on practical skills like mathematics and surveying); he had limited formal schooling and no college.

Benjamin Franklin — Mostly self-taught after minimal formal schooling (about 2 years); he apprenticed and learned through reading and life experience.

Thomas Jefferson — Tutored at home in languages (Latin, Greek, French) until around age 9, with continued home-based advanced studies before college.

James Madison — Initially taught by his mother and tutors at home before attending Princeton.

John Adams — Homeschooled by his father in basics before Harvard.

Alexander Hamilton — Largely self-taught/homeschooled in his early years in the Caribbean, with some tutoring.

Patrick Henry — Homeschooled/tutored at home.

Others like John Jay (homeschooled before college) and various signers of the Declaration/Constitution are described similarly in homeschool history sources.

You can do it!

As I’ve said many times before: Pull your children out of public schools. Homeschool them or find a solid academic and morally grounded private school where God’s truth is taught.
There are many organizations ready to help working parents. Start a school at your church and share the teaching responsibilities among families. Many churches sit empty during the week. Plenty of elderly folks would make excellent part-time teachers and would happily volunteer their time for free.

You might think it’s impossible, but I personally know three financially strapped single moms who made it work and successfully removed their children from the public school system:

• One mom homeschooled her kids with only a GED and her children ended up better educated than their public-school peers.

• Another secured a scholarship for her child to attend a private Christian school.

• The third single mom landed a job at a private Christian school giving her child full access to a quality, faith-based education as an incredible employee benefit. Best of all? She could earn an income while staying close enough to see exactly how her little one was being taught and cared for every single day.

There are numerous scholarship programs available for families who can’t afford private tuition. Start one yourself if needed! Homeschool co-ops share teaching duties and curriculum. Online homeschool programs offer structured options. Some churches have already opened their unused rooms during the week for homeschooling groups.

In Florida, where I live, homeschool parents can get state-funded scholarships averaging about $8,000 per child through the PEP program to pay for homeschool expenses. This is public money that follows the student, similar to public school funding. Florida also provides similar scholarships (averaging around $8,000 per student) to help parents cover tuition at private schools through programs like the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship and Family Empowerment Scholarship. Other states have similar programs as well.

I believe that if you genuinely care about your child’s health, heart, mind and soul, you will find a way. Two old sayings and a well-known scripture verse ring especially true here:

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,”

“Our children are our future.”

Proverbs 22:6 – Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

February 9, 2026

~ The Author ~
Patti Johnson is a Portrait and Landscape artist and Cartoonist. She served on the Colorado State Board of Education from 1995 – 2001. A parent and married for 50 years to her loving husband, she is a God-fearing patriotic American. Send All Comments to: pj4charis@gmail.com.

Patti Johnson’s commentaries may not be reprinted or republished without permission. Submitted to and published by Kettle Moraine, Ltd. by arrangement, and with permission of the author.