First aired on FOX – The American Accountability Foundation, a conservative government research nonprofit, has created a “watch list” of top Education Department officials it recommends President-elect Donald Trump should fire.
The nonprofit organization is funded by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. published the list on that website. AAF has collected 19 “documents” naming “America's most destructive education bureaucrats.”
AAF President Tom Jones, a former Republican Congressional staffer, told Fox News Digital that the “public” list was not created at the behest of the Trump transition team, but rather that conservative groups wanted Americans to “understand.” He said this is because he believes it is important. That the federal government, and especially the Department of Education, is full of public servants who are not impartial technicians but rather ideologues carrying out the president's policies, despite clear instructions from voters in November that they are willing to do so. These are people who have an agenda. ”
“At the end of the day, it's fundamentally undemocratic. What you get is a group of people who don't reflect the will of the American people, and who have a different opinion than what the American people said in November was their will.” At the end of the day, what that means is we're going to have a left-wing approach to education, especially higher education,” Jones told Fox News Digital. Ta. “ The American higher education system is collapsing. I think the events of last summer, when left-wing, pro-terrorist groups occupied American campuses and faculty and administrators supported them, should have been a wake-up call for all Americans. And I think this could be a wake-up call for this administration. ”
Jones said the list includes Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, “serial donors” to President Biden, and others who prioritize his progressive policies, including Biden's push for student loan “relief.” He said it also included “hardcore ideologues.” “Tightening regulations on successful online teaching partnerships and conducting a “witch hunt'' against Christian universities and career colleges through the Office of Student Financial Aid Enforcement.
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President Biden on Monday, April 8, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin. (Daniel Steinle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Jones identified one person in the Enforcement Bureau who “spent his career investigating career colleges and Christian universities in the Maryland Attorney General's Office.” He pointed to another person who said he would work to turn the Department of Energy into a “mini-CFPB,” a reference to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which Jones described as “essentially a people's organization.” It's nothing more than a witch-hunt factory used to investigate.” The government doesn't like that. ” The nonprofit group named one of the Department of Energy's general counsels on the list as “a leading legal advocate for transgender rights in the debate over religious exemptions for certain universities.” He said there is.
“These people are not going to say, 'I hated President Trump last week, but on January 22nd I'm going to be so excited to implement his education policies.'” Unless they are moved from their positions within the organization, they will continue to work behind the scenes to attack alternatives to traditional four-year institutions,” Jones said.
Also named on the list is a civilian employee of DOE's Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), who the nonprofit says led a “$6.1 billion student loan forgiveness program for art school students.” is also included.
“People say it's a relief, but it's actually a huge boon for people who are trying to get a college degree that they can't afford,” Jones told Fox News Digital. “And look, it’s completely unacceptable that the federal government would make student loan repayments for someone and then shift that burden onto a plumber or a welder, a teacher who may or may not have an education. If you go to college, you'll have to pay $150,000 in debt to a guy who got a feminist degree from Columbia University, and that's simply, fundamentally unfair and wrong. If you want to get that degree, you need to be ready to pay for it. ”
Students prepare for a lecture at the University of Texas at Austin on February 22, 2024 in Austin, Texas. President Biden announced an additional $1.2 billion in student loan forgiveness, bringing total forgiveness to $138 billion. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The list also includes another DOE official who the nonprofit alleges helped the Biden administration “weaponize federal student aid policies for faith-based higher education.”
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The nonprofit organization played a key role in the DOE's $37.7 million fine against Grand Canyon University, the largest Christian university in the United States, for allegedly misrepresenting the cost of its doctoral program. and accused the Biden administration of effectively “bullying.” “The university canceled student debt for them.
Jones said everyone on the list earns six-figure incomes, with some earning more than $200,000 compared to the average salary for teachers in the United States, which is about $50,000 to $60,000. He added that some people earn an annual salary.
“Woke bureaucrats at the Department of Education are pulling out $200,000 to attack alternatives to education,” Jones said. “The Enforcement Directorate is attacking things like career colleges and Christian colleges, and they're getting rich off of it. And it's absolutely shameful. So I think the administration is saying, look, this is giving people 200,000 yen. It's totally unacceptable to attack the opportunity for welders and nurses and people like that to get higher education in one year. ”
Linda McMahon, former head of the U.S. Small Business Administration and candidate for Secretary of Education, at the Capitol on Wednesday, January 8, 2025. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“At the end of the day, Americans need to understand that the people we're talking about here are not technical people,” Jones said. “This isn't plumbing work they're doing. This is policy work. This is fundamentally ideological work. And at the end of the day, these people are political appointees who can be fired when the administration takes office. “It's like that.''
“I hope the administration really uses this opportunity to treat them like political appointees and ask them to move forward. Because the political ideology will be here to stay for years,” he added. “And, unfortunately, we saw that happen in the first administration, where the administration allowed a bunch of unelected bureaucrats to run roughshod over their agenda. I am cautiously optimistic that this administration has learned the lesson after the bitter experience that we cannot tolerate it.'' ”
Jones said he supports President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for education secretary, Linda McMahon. He still has to go through the Senate confirmation process.
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“I'm excited that she has the ability and latitude to do the hard work necessary to fundamentally change the Department of Education, which has been in limbo since the 1970s under the Carter administration. Because institutions. The world is moving toward different approaches to education, whether it's high school or post-secondary,” Jones said.
Fox News Digital has contacted the Department of Education's press office and each of the officials listed for comment.
The AAF created a similar “watch list” of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employees that it recommended the Trump administration remove. In response, then-DHS Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas condemned in the strongest terms “any effort to harass or intimidate public officials.”
“What Alejandro Mayorkas did was use the power of the Department of Homeland Security to chill the speech of groups like the American Accountability Foundation,” Jones told Fox News Digital. “At no time did anyone feel threatened, but an example was that he ordered departments within the Department of Homeland Security to begin investigating the AAF. It's a kind of weaponization of government. Four years under the Biden administration…so. The idea that some people feel targeted is complete nonsense and a complete red herring, and the fact is that Mayorkas and Biden administration officials are making statements they just don't agree with. It is a tool for containment. ”
