Chambana Sun

Mary Miller, Representative for Illinois' 15th Congressional District, has publicly supported President Donald J. Trump's decision to close the Department of Education. In a Facebook post dated February 14, she said, "For years, unaccountable DC bureaucrats have put radical ideology over the actual educational needs of our children."

"This week, President Donald J. Trump took the first steps to close the Department of Education," said Miller, U.S. Representative, according to Facebook. "For years, unaccountable DC bureaucrats have put radical ideology over the actual educational needs of our children. The Department of Education has failed generations of our children, and I applaud President Trump's decisive action to shut it down!"

According to Miller's Facebook post, it included a video of her speech on the House Floor where she expressed support for Trump's actions. She argued that the Department of Education had exceeded its intended role by imposing federal control over local education systems. This control, she claimed, resulted in policies that prioritize ideology rather than addressing children's educational needs. Miller emphasized that this approach drained taxpayer dollars and contributed to declining test scores and a uniform curriculum that negatively impacts student learning. She described the decision to eliminate the department as "common sense."

Screenshot of U.S. Rep. Mary Miller's Feb 14 Facebook post | U.S. Rep. Mary Miller's Facebook page

On February 12, Trump expressed his intention to close the Department of Education immediately, as reported by Reuters. He acknowledged that such an action would require approval from Congress and teachers' unions. Trump referred to the department as "a big con job" and reiterated his stance from his first term when Congress did not act on his previous attempt to close it.

Time magazine noted that closing the Department of Education has been part of Republican orthodoxy since 1980, stemming from a campaign promise made by candidate Ronald Reagan. However, discussions about abolishing the department date back even further to the Civil War era. The first federal Department of Education was established in 1867 by President Andrew Johnson but was re-established in its current form by President Jimmy Carter in 1979.

Miller currently represents Illinois' 15th Congressional District in the U.S. Congress after succeeding John Shimkus in 2021. Born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1959 and a graduate of Eastern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Arts degree, she resides in Oakland, Illinois with her husband where they manage their fourth-generation family farm. According to her official biography, Miller is a mother of seven children and grandmother to twenty grandchildren.