On Friday, the Trump Administration commenced executing one of its pre-election promises – decimating the current U.S. Education Department and launching a reclamation project of its own. During the election process, Trump vociferously exclaimed his plans to do a “start-over” project and “end wokeness” with the beleaguered national overseer of public education.

On Monday, the justices halted a Massachusetts federal court order that prevented Trump from laying off 1,400 people due to the legality of his actions and mission. Upon further review, the Supreme Court acquiesced, and now there are no more obstacles for President Trump and U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to dismantle her department. 

“The Federal Government has been running our Education System into the ground, but we are going to turn it all around by giving the Power back to the PEOPLE,” Trump said late Monday in a post on Truth Social. “Thank you to the United States Supreme Court!”

In a press release, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said, “While today’s ruling is a significant win for students and families, it is a shame that the highest court in the land had to step in to allow President Trump to advance the reforms Americans elected him to deliver using the authorities granted to him by the U.S. Constitution.”

All along, the goal has been “to restore the Department to the status quo.” 

Regrettably, that means, in effect, practically closing the department, which many judicial and public officials believed would cause irreparable harm to the national education system. Core among those naysayers was U.S. District Court Judge Myong J. Joun, who was behind the preliminary injunction. 

“A department without enough employees to perform statutorily mandated functions is not a department at all,” Joun wrote in May. “This court cannot be asked to cover its eyes while the Department’s employees are continuously fired and units are transferred out until the Department becomes a shell of itself.”

McMahon has gone on to say that this RIF (reduction-in-force) is a good thing and what needs to happen for the betterment of our system and her department. 

“We will carry out the reduction in force to promote efficiency and accountability and to ensure resources are directed where they matter most — to students, parents, and teachers,” she said. “As we return education to the states, this Administration will continue to perform all statutory duties while empowering families and teachers by reducing education bureaucracy.”

Among the loudest detractors is Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who made clear in her dissent that she thought the Trump Administration’s intent with the Education Department was hidden from its actual plans. 

“The record unambiguously refutes that account,” she wrote. “Neither the President nor Secretary McMahon made any secret of their intent to ignore their constitutional duties. President Trump repeatedly called for the immediate abolition of the Department both during his campaign and after taking office.”

She continued: “Rather than wait for legislative action to begin shuttering the Department, McMahon slashed the agency’s workforce in half, concededly without analyzing the effect of those terminations on the Department’s statutorily mandated functions.”

Yet when one considered Secretary McMahon’s opening comments, Justice Sotomayor may have been onto something. “Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies.”

Among her core tasks is outlining plans for delegating the agency’s core functions. The biggest is the $1.6 trillion federal student loan business, which serves 43 million borrowers.