Democrats on Friday morning attempted to enter the Department of Education building in Washington, D.C. to meet with acting Education Secretary Denise L. Carter but were stopped by security.
The man, who said he was a federal employee, did not make it clear why the lawmakers were not allowed into the building.
Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., asked the man whether he was doing so of his own volition or if he was ordered to block the door, to which the guard responded that he was doing his job without giving further details.
As they surrounded the single security guard in front of the door, lawmakers repeatedly insisted that they had the right to enter the building and slammed the Trump administration over a “lack of transparency.”
House Democrats were blocked from entering the Department of Education building in Washington, Feb. 7, 2025. (Fox News)
President Donald Trump and Republicans have advocated for shutting down the Department of Education, saying that the states are better equipped to handle education. Trump on Tuesday said that if Linda McMahon, his pick for education secretary, is confirmed, she should work to “put herself out of a job.”
The Nation’s Report Card, which assesses how American students are performing in various subjects, showed seven out of 10 fourth graders are not proficient readers, which is a worse score than the last report card in 2022. The report card noted that reading scores showed “no significant change” since 1992.
President Donald J. Trump speaks with then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in the Roosevelt Room at White House on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
BETSY DEVOS: EDUCATION DEPARTMENT HAS FAILED. TIME TO LET PARENTS AND STATES TAKE THE LEAD
Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who served in Trump’s first administration, slammed the department and called for a revamp in an opinion piece.
“A complete reset begins with ending the failed experiment resident in the Department of Education. The bureaucrats have focused on mandating DEI, when students needed the focus to be on ABC and 123,” DeVos wrote. “President Trump and Congress should take their corrosive power away and instead block grant all necessary education funding directly to the states.”
“This reset must also ensure that no child in America is trapped in a failing school,” DeVos added.
The U.S. Department of Education building stands in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020. U.S. public schools need $200 billion in federal aid to be able to safely open for the fall semester with the coronavirus continuing to circulate witnesses told a House panel this month. (Erin Scott/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Elon Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is expected to make major spending cuts, became the subject of Democrats’ ire as lawmakers protested against him on Capitol Hill this past Tuesday.
In response to lawmakers’ fears, Trump said that Musk “can’t do and won’t do anything without our approval.”
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