• DOGE's Vivek Ramaswamy said eighth graders' reading scores in 2022 were "downright brutal."
• He said eliminating the Education Department would help improve literacy in the US.
• Education experts told BI that eliminating the department likely wouldn't help boost reading scores.

One of the business leaders tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to suggest cuts for government spending said axing the Education Department would help boost kids' reading scores in the US. Education policy experts say it's not that simple.

Vivek Ramaswamy, who is tasked with leading a new commission called the Department of Government Efficiency alongside Elon Musk, called reading proficiency scores for eighth graders "downright brutal" in a Sunday post on X.

"This is a 5-alarm fire & President Trump's vision to dismantle the Department of Education is the first step to fixing it," Ramaswamy wrote in response to a separate post highlighting the low reading scores.

The National Assessment of Education Progress found that 31% of eighth graders were proficient in reading in 2022 — 3 percentage points lower than the 2019 score.

It's unclear how eliminating the federal Education Department — which would require congressional action — would help boost literacy scores. Education policy experts across the political spectrum said that the department oversees federal grants and data collection that monitor students' progress.

Weadé James, the senior director for K-12 education policy at the left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress, told Business Insider that there's "no proof" eliminating the department would boost literacy.

"What we know is proven is that the department provides an opportunity for every child to have access and opportunity to receive a high-quality education," James said. "What is unproven is that closing the Department of Education is going to actually fix the literacy challenges that we're experiencing."

The department was founded in 1979, eight years after the National Assessment of Educational Progress began collecting long-term reading-assessment data — and the data found that reading scores were slightly higher after the department was established.

When previously asked how Trump's pick for education secretary, Linda McMahon, would address literacy, Liz Huston, a Trump-Vance transition spokesperson, said that given McMahon's "extensive background in the business world, government, and serving on Connecticut's School Board, she is ready to deliver on President Trump's agenda to restore America's education system and prepare our next generation for the future."

The Education Department's role in literacy

While reading scores over the past decades have fluctuated, there's never been a year in which students excelled in literacy, with the share of eighth graders meeting the department's reading proficiency standards ranging from a low of 29% in 1992 to a high of 36% in 2013 and 2017. The pandemic set back many children's reading progress, education experts previously told BI, along with a lack of consistent state and federal investment in reading instruction.

Nat Malkus, a senior fellow and deputy director of education policy at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, told BI that Ramaswamy is right to be concerned about kids' reading scores, but the idea that eliminating the Education Department will address those scores "doesn't hold a lot of water."

"If it weren't for the Department of Education, we wouldn't know the statistics that he's citing about how many students are proficient at reading," Malkus said.

"I think the administration is interested in changing the way funds flow with fewer strings," Malkus added, "but whether that will actually get through what is still a very closely divided Congress seems dubious."

Ramaswamy, Musk, and Trump, along with some Republican lawmakers, have supported dismantling the Education Department in favor of giving states more power over kids' education. Malkus said, though, that states are already largely in control of education — states, rather than the federal government, set classroom curricula and most school policies.

The Education Department's main role is to facilitate federal funding and research. James said more investment in the Institute of Education Sciences — a nonpartisan research arm within the department — could "help us to identify, what is the effective literacy instruction that students need."

She also said the Education Department has the power to establish and expand grants that could foster partnerships with local school districts and researchers to equip teachers on the best literacy practices.

The Education Department oversees several grant programs, including $18.4 billion in funding for the Title I program, which provides federal assistance to school districts to help low-income students.

• Biden's administration posted notices to withdraw its broader student-loan-forgiveness plans.
• Amid lawsuits, the Education Department wrote that it stands by the legality of its debt-relief plans.
• The plans aimed to cancel some student debt for over 38 million borrowers.

President Joe Biden's administration has officially scrapped its unfinished rules for broad student-loan forgiveness.

The Education Department posted notices to withdraw its plans to cancel student debt for over 38 million borrowers. The withdrawal notices were for two of the department's unfinished debt-relief rules. The first rule was Biden's Plan B for broader debt relief after the Supreme Court struck his first plan down in summer 2023. The second rule was a proposal to provide relief to borrowers facing financial hardship.

In the notices to withdraw the unfinished rules, the Education Department said it is focused on helping student-loan borrowers manage the remaining elements of the return to repayment that began last year following the pandemic pause.

The department said that withdrawing these regulations will give future stakeholders the flexibility to craft new forms of relief, especially with the uncertainty the incoming administration brings. Trump has previously criticized broad relief and is unlikely to continue Biden's efforts.

The department also said that the withdrawal of these rules is not a result of the questions surrounding their legality, saying that it believes the relief "is authorized by the Secretary's longstanding and existing authority" under the Higher Education Act.

Biden's Plan B for student-loan forgiveness would have benefited over 30 million borrowers. It proposed full or partial relief for categories including borrowers with unpaid interest and those who have made at least 20 years of payments. While the rule was never finalized, a group of GOP-led states filed a lawsuit in September to block its implementation.

Meanwhile, the Education Department proposed a separate rule in October to provide relief to 8 million borrowers facing financial hardship. Those categories would have included borrowers facing challenges with childcare or medical expenses.

The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on the withdrawal of the plans.

Biden is still pursuing other avenues for debt relief before his term is up. On Friday, his administration announced an additional $4.28 billion in debt relief for 54,900 borrowers in Public Service Loan Forgiveness — a result of ongoing improvements to the program. Despite not being able to pass broad relief, Biden, over the course of his term, has provided relief to nearly 5 million borrowers through changes to various programs.

Some Republican lawmakers lauded the withdrawal of the plans. Sen. Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate education committee, said in a Friday statement that Biden's "student loan schemes were always a lie."

Meanwhile, some advocates criticized the GOP-led challenges to Biden's relief efforts. Persis Yu, the deputy executive director of the advocacy group Student Borrower Protection Center, said in a statement that Biden's plans "would have freed millions from the crushing weight of the student debt crisis and unlocked economic mobility for millions more workers and families."

"We are deeply grateful to President Biden for the work he did to fight for the 40 million borrowers trapped in student debt," Yu said.