While the United States Ministry of Education is shrinking after massive dismissals of the agency, President Donald Trump and his allies continue to make questionable affirmations on the agency and the country’s education.
ABC News examined some of President Donald Trump’s current complaints concerning the Ministry of Education and the United States Education State.
Expenditure vs results
Trump has repeatedly said that the United States ranks world in education among developed countries while spending the most per student.
“So they classify the first 40 countries of the world, we are classified n ° 40th, but we are classified n ° 1 in a department: cost per student”, ” Trump said to the White House last month. “We therefore depend more by student than any other country in the world, but we are classified n ° 40.”
The headquarters of the American Department of Education, which was ordered closed for the day for what officials described as security reasons in the midst of large -scale layoffs, is seen on March 12, 2025 in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein / AP
This affirmation is not true on the basis of the data examined by ABC News. The United States is not classified last in education and does not spend the most by student.
The White House did not respond to ABC News’ request for information on Trump’s complaint. We don’t know what Trump data used to base his claims.
Even if the country spends a lot by student, the Education data initiative found an average of $ 20,387 per year of federal, state and local expenses. The amount is the third higher per student (after adjustment to local currency values). The country is not the last in any education statistics that ABC News has examined.
The United States is greater than average in reading and science, and almost an average of math scores, according to the Organizational Economic Cooperation and Development Program (OECD) for international students (PISA). PISA is the standard of industry for the classification of students from different countries, according to educational experts. There are around 40 member countries and savings in the OECD and around 40 more countries have participated in the last three assessments. It varies according to the year – in 2015, 70 countries and economies participated; In 2018, 78 participated.
In 2022, the latest data published, around 81 countries participated in OECD PISA assessments, which measure the capacity of 15 -year -olds to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge. The United States has ranked ninth out of 81 in reading, 16th / 81 in science and 34th / 81 in mathematics, according to the results of PISA 2022.
The results of PISA demystified Trump’s long assertion that “we are at the bottom of each list”.
The next PISA data collection takes place in 2025 – and is expected to be published in September 2026, according to an OECD spokesperson.
However, this does not mean that American students are still very high skills. Certain results on exams administered nationally have shown concerns in recent times.
The fourth and eighth American -year -old slippery reading scores aggravated in 2024, according to the national evaluation of education progress, nicknamed the country’s bulletin, which is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics under the Ministry of Education. Compared to 2022, this year’s average reading scores fell by 2 points for the fourth and eighth year assessments, according to the data nces carried out between January and March 2024. This adds to the decrease of 3 points for the two grades in 2022.
Despite the drop in reading, there was a certain recovery in mathematics in 2024, but this increase did not make the students at pre-pale levels.
And the NCES also found almost a third party American students ended the 2023-2024 school year behind the school level in at least one academic matter.
It is not clear if these data will be collected in the coming years if the DOE is eliminated.
States and premises education agencies
The Trump administration said that by cuts to the Ministry of Education, they want to return education in the United States.
“The President wants to return education in the United States, empower people closest to make these very important decisions for the lives of our children. And … This is a first step in this process,” said the white house press secretary Karoline Leavitt
Education is already a local level broadcast, because the Federal Department of Education indicates that around 10% of public school funds nationwide, according to several educational experts.
Chloé Kienzle d’Arlington, Virginia, has a sign while it is held outside the headquarters of the US Department of Auduction, which was ordered closed for the day for what the officials described as security reasons in the midst of large -scale layoffs on March 12, 2025, in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein / AP
The Ministry of Education does not administer the study program or creates lessons for students in the country. Nor does it define the requirements for registering and obtaining the diploma or establishing or accrediting schools or universities.
In fact, the study program comes from local academic states and districts. The Department of Education does not teach students to take standardized exams and assessments. States are already doing this.
The Department of Education holds the schools responsible for the application of non-discrimination laws based on race, sex and disability.
The agency also administers funds for childhood education support programs to 12th year such as the rural education success program, which supports rural districts that may lack staff and resources; Title I, which finances programs aimed at improving the performance of low -income and low -performance schools; And subsidies for people with disabilities, including transition and post -secondary programs for students.
Not only does the department administer K-12 assistance, but also helps students continue higher education through the federal assistance office for students through subsidies, working study funds and low interest loans.
Finally, the DOE holds the schools responsible for the success of the students through the law on the successions of the students, which obliges each state to provide data on the performance of the materials, the graduation rates, the suspensions, the absenteeism, the qualifications of the teachers and more.
The mission of the Department of Education is to promote the performance and preparation of students for global competitiveness by promoting educational excellence and ensuring equal access, according to Ed.gov.
Doe employees present themselves at work
Trump said, without evidence, that many employees of the Ministry of Education were not going to work or do a good job.
“Many of them do not work at all. Many of them have never come to work. Many, many of them have never come to work,” Trump said in the White House on Wednesday.
The White House did not respond to the request for comments from ABC News on the place where Trump obtained this information.
Based on dozens of interviews, ABC News Reporting has found no evidence that employees will never come to work “as Trump said.
ABC News spoke to employees responsible for everything, the realization of critical research projects to the application of anti-discrimination laws for students according to race, sex and disability, among other characteristics.
When the Ministry of Education reduced almost 50% of its workforce this week, an email to those who remained employed, “please, know that these decisions have not been taken lightly and do not think about the dedication and hard work of those who leave.”
Joe Murphy, whose post of management and data analyst was eliminated in the Ministry of Education earlier this week, said on Wednesday that he felt “disposable”.
“We had the impression that we were disposable in a certain sense, in particular those of us in the data space,” he told ABC News.
Victoria Delano was a specialist in equal opportunities in the office of the education department for civil rights at the service of disabled people. Delano said she believed that she was the only employee in the OCR who was stationed in Alabama.
“It is horrible that the Office of Civil Rights, to start, lack of staff, but then, when I was locked up by access to work last week, to think, OK, another person who was removed from the equation,” said Delano.
“These students have no one else. They can always file complaints with the OCR. Please understand that the OCR is at best in sub-employment, and OCR at the moment has no external communication with you all. So I don’t know where they turn,” she added.
A regional employee of the Ministry of Education, who received the reduction of electronic mail in force on Tuesday and spoke to ABC News on anonymity condition for fear of reprisals, said their civil rights office had been abolished.
Offices in major cities, including San Francisco, New York, Cleveland, Boston, Chicago and Dallas, have closed, and the three American buildings of the DC Ministry of Education will ultimately be consolidated, according to senior officials from the Ministry of Education.
“All these disabled children, who are the main part of our file, will not be helped,” said the employee.
