American education systems are overwhelmingly funded and regulated by state and local governments. I’m not aware of any evidence which suggests that increasing the federal role over the last few decades resulted in a significant improvement in test scores. And so, if you view the dismantling of the Department of Education purely as a policy matter, it doesn’t excite me that much as long as the genuinely federal functions, such as the operation of the student loan program, remain unimpaired. In fact, since Trump’s DOE would undoubtedly use its powers for evil purposes, you can make a decent argument that abolishing it is actually a good thing.
Of course, there is more to the story than that. The DOE was created by statute and was funded by appropriations from Congress; Trump doesn’t have the legal authority to make it disappear. This is yet another gross and unwarranted power grab by the executive. It will have to be resisted regardless of the merits of the underlying action.