Gregg Jarrett Explains Why Trump Can’t ‘Abolish The Department Of Education Entirely’

Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett appeared on Fox Business Tuesday to weigh in on President Donald Trump’s push to streamline the federal education bureaucracy, saying that while Trump can cut the workforce within the Department of Education he cannot abolish the department altogether.

The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to proceed with major cuts to the Department of Education by pausing a lower court order to reinstate nearly 1,400 employees. During an appearance on “The Evening Edit,” Jarrett said that abolishing the Department of Education entirely requires congressional approval.

“What Trump cannot do is abolish the Department of Education entirely. That would require an act of Congress because Congress created the department in 1979. But that’s not what Trump is doing here. These layoffs are entirely permissible as long as the department’s legal obligations imposed by Congress are being met, and they are,” Jarrett said. “Some of the mandated programs are being transferred to other federal agencies that are better equipped. Student loans to Treasury, for example, other programs to labor.”

Jarrett said the shift in authority over education funding aims to move control from federal bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. to state and local governments.

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“So the net effect is to shift greater authority over how money is spent on students to the states and the local communities,” Jarrett said. “Getting rid of the DC bureaucratic lethargy and stasis should, in the end, benefit students.”

Jarrett said Trump’s authority as granted by Article II of the Constitution allows him to hire and fire federal employees within the executive branch, a power that the Supreme Court affirmed in recent rulings. (RELATED: ‘That Will Get Their Attention’: Gregg Jarrett Describes Tactic To Make Sanctuary Cities Stop Harboring Illegals)

“It’s bureaucracy out of control, and Trump’s now trying to put it in control. And as Supreme Court decisions go, you know, Liz, this was an easy one, a no-brainer. It’s long established. The president can hire and fire employees in the executive branch,” Jarrett told host Elizabeth MacDonald. “Fundamental duty under Article II of the Constitution. And just last week, in fact, the High Court backed Trump’s efforts to cut the federal workforce in other agencies.”

In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for the dismantling of the Department of Education. After signing the executive order, Trump transferred student loan management to the Small Business Administration and moved special needs and nutrition programs to the Department of Health and Human Services, prompting several states to sue Secretary of Education Linda McMahon over the department’s decision.

In May, Biden-appointed federal Judge Myong J. Joun blocked the Department of Education’s attempt to eliminate nearly half of its workforce.

“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,” McMahon said in a statement following the Supreme Court’s decision Monday.

Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.

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