Who benefits from Trump’s dismantling of the Department of Education?

This is the first in a two-part series from researchers at the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy

In March, President Trump issued an executive order directing his Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps” to dismantle the Department of Education.¹ While fully eliminating the Department would require legislation by Congress,² the Trump administration is on track to achieve the same goal in all but name – slashing nearly half the Department’s workforce,³ gutting civil rights enforcement in schools,⁴ defunding public schools,⁵ and boosting private and charter schools.⁶

These actions stand to benefit certain factions – like charter school backers – and many of these groups’ representatives have been instrumental in helping Trump return to the presidency and now hold positions in his administration. This two-part blog highlights four of these factions and some of their members: this first piece outlines the factions themselves, while part two will trace their ties to Los Angeles. Although these groups’ interests vary – some are financial, while others are ideological – they have found common cause behind Trump’s efforts to dismantle public education.

Charter school backers

Advocates for expanding charter and private schools at the expense of public schools are among the biggest beneficiaries of Trump’s plans. The Department has already issued guidance encouraging states to use federal dollars to expand charter and private schools,⁷ and, as called for by Project 2025, appears likely to repeal Biden administration regulations that constrained the opening of new charter schools.⁸ The rewards are financial as well – the Department has funneled a historic $500 million into charter programs this year, including more than $4.5 million for California-based charter advocacy groups.⁹ Advocates for this agenda are not just toasting the President – they are profiting as they help execute it.

Secretary Linda McMahon is a prime example. A longtime charter backer, McMahon and her husband have donated approximately $2 million to Achievement First, a charter school network operating in the northeast.¹⁰ In addition to now leading the Department of Education, McMahon played a major role in Trump’s return to power: she was the 6th largest individual donor to pro-Trump Super PACs during the 2024 campaign (giving over $20 million)¹¹ and co-chaired his official transition team.¹² Many DOE appointees come from America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a think tank that McMahon led during the Biden administration.¹³

The McMahons are by no means the only billionaire privatizers behind Trump’s agenda. Many others gave heavily to secure the Republican Senate majority now enabling Trump’s assault on public education. Alice and Jim Walton, heirs to the Walmart fortune, sent a combined $17.5 million to Super PACs backing congressional Republicans for the 2024 election.¹⁴ The Walton Family Foundation has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to support pro-charter candidates and charter school networks in the last few decades.¹⁵ The new Republican majority has stood by as Trump’s DOE illegally withheld federal education dollars and sabotaged the Department from within.¹⁶

Education profiteers

For-profit education companies also stand to gain from Trump’s education policies. The administration’s promised rollback of oversight and regulation paves the way for these firms to pad their profit margins at the expense of students and the public. Since 2010, the Department of Education has been enormously effective in cracking down on the abuses of the for-profit college sector. Now, with the Supreme Court approving Trump’s firing of over 1,300 Department staff, the Trump administration has begun to dismantle this successful regulatory framework and the sector’s predatory practices will return in full force.¹⁷

Executives and lobbyists from the very companies that stand to benefit funded Trump’s campaign and are now staffing his administration. Administration appointees that come directly from for-profit education firms include Penny Schwinn – nominated to the number two-ranked position in the Department¹⁸ – who previously worked at The Vistria Group, a private equity firm that owns and invests in education companies.¹⁹

The Trump administration’s actions are also improving the outlook for companies seeking to profit from K-12 education, and particularly those focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI). In April, Trump issued an executive order “promoting the appropriate integration of AI into education” through, for one, “public-private partnerships.”²⁰ Trump’s “AI czar” is David Sacks,²¹ Elon Musk’s buddy²² and a venture capitalist whose firm has invested in AI and educational technology companies like CourseHero.²³ A greater “integration” of AI into schools would present new or expanded markets for educational technology companies like these.

Culture warriors

A third group benefitting from Trump’s dismantling of the Department are culture warriors who see public schools as vehicles for liberal indoctrination. They have cheered the transformation of the Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) from a body that investigates civil rights violations in schools into one that weaponizes the federal government to attack equity efforts and protections for marginalized students.²⁴ Operatives who previously worked towards these goals outside the federal government are now staffing the Department itself.

One such figure is Kimberly Richey, nominated to lead OCR.²⁵ Richey previously consulted for Parents Defending Education,²⁶ the right-wing education group that has spent millions targeting DEI programs²⁷ and filing civil rights complaints against school districts over alleged ‘racial preference’ policies.²⁸ Richey is poised to lead the office she helped turn against students of color.

Public Goods Underminers

A final group benefitting from Trump’s dismantling of the Department of Education are wealthy individuals – and their ideological operatives – who want to slash public spending broadly to justify lower taxes for themselves. These people often have no particular interest in education policy; the defunding of the Department is just another feature of Trump’s larger agenda to decimate public goods and shrink government that appeals to them.

Many of Trump’s major donors are of this mold. One is Geoffrey Palmer, a Beverly Hills-based billionaire real estate developer whose properties include the gaudy, faux-Italian apartment complexes lining the 110 freeway in Downtown Los Angeles.²⁹ In the 2024 election cycle, Palmer contributed at least $3 million to Trump-affiliated groups.³⁰

Counter to the administration’s narrative, its assault on the Department of Education is not about improving education for America’s students but about catering to a narrow set of supporters. And this is not solely a federal fight – similar battles are playing out in California and Los Angeles, sometimes with the same cast of characters. The second post in this series will expose how these groups are shaping the future of education in Los Angeles.

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