By Family Research Council

Family Research Council regularly steers the course of events in Washington, D.C., often by letting its experts make their views known on legislation. But now, one of FRC’s most beloved figures is going to play a significant role inside the second Trump administration in one of the most contentious areas of policy today.

Meg Kilgannon served in the first Trump administration as director of the Office of Faith and Opportunity Initiatives within the Department of Education (DOE). During the Biden-Harris interregnum, she served as senior fellow for Education Studies at FRC — until last Friday, May 2, when she left FRC to take a new title: director of strategic partnerships in the Department of Education. “The office that I had in the previous administration will be part of this office,” Kilgannon told “Washington Watch” in her final appearance in her FRC capacity on Friday.

Kilgannon will work alongside Secretary Linda McMahon to assure schools respect women’s right to privacy and fairness, accord Americans of all races equal treatment under the law, and help President Donald Trump fulfill his electoral mandate to close the department and return control over education to the states.

“It’s going to take a whole team of people in the department to get the department closed. … I’m really excited to join that team,” said Kilgannon. “We’re going to need to be very focused in our work on getting that done so that we can send education back to the states where it belongs.”

Among the most significant accomplishments of President Trump’s first 100 days in office, he fired half the employees at the U.S. Department of Education and signed an executive order “to facilitate the closure” of the department as expeditiously as possible while seamlessly maintaining services. Ultimately, closing the department, which was established through congressional legislation under the Carter administration, requires an act of Congress for its closure. Earlier this year, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) moved to codify President Trump’s executive order into law by reintroducing a bill “To terminate the Department of Education” (H.R.899). It currently has 34 cosponsors.

“We have to shut that organization down,” stated Kilgannon.

Until legislation passes, the president has sued states such as Maine that refuse to respect girls’ privacy in school locker rooms, cracked down on DEI programs as a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and removed $1 billion of mental health funding, because “grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas,” according to a DOE spokesperson.

“We are not going to put up with this,” Kilgannon declared.

With these actions, the Trump administration has assured the nation’s schools are “returning to the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, and they are getting away from the Biden administration’s laser-focus on woke indoctrination of our kids,” said former Congressman Jody Hice, who hosts “Washington Watch” each Friday.

But both agreed changing, or eliminating, the federal government’s role in K-12 education will only produce long-term fruit if parents, especially Christians, exercise their responsibility as citizens, especially their biblical duty to assure their children are raised in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

“You can delegate the authority over your children’s education to others, but the responsibility remains with you,” said Kilgannon. “And the same is true in a government of, by, and for the people: We can delegate our governing responsibilities to other people, and we can hope that they do a good job. But there is always a need for people to be informed and engaged in their local government, state government, and at the federal level — especially at the state and local level: your town council, your local school board, your local school, your church, your neighborhood, your family. That is the building block of society.”

“We need to be engaged always and seeking to do God’s will in all of those places,” she continued. “It’s our responsibility as citizens.”

When Christians take prayerful peaceful action to intervene in the political process, victory follows. Kilgannon cited Colorado lawmakers watering down a bill that would have instructed family courts to consider parents who refused to affirm their children’s decision to identify as members of the opposite sex (by “misgendering” or “deadnaming”) guilty of exercising “coercive controls” in custody decisions. The Senate Judiciary Committee deleted that controversial provision last Thursday, with the acquiescence of Planned Parenthood and LGBTQ pressure groups.

“Thanks be to God, people showed up and complained about this part of the bill, so that was removed,” Kilgannon told Hice. “But that just means that it’s not time to go home.” Despite the Democrat-controlled state legislature’s modest reforms, HB25-1312 or the “Kelly Loving Act,” remains “an overreaching bill that is dangerous for families.”

‘We’re Not Going to Put Up with This’: Kilgannon to Face Down University Elitists

Kilgannon’s portfolio will also include efforts to hold colleges and universities accountable for breaking the same policies. Last month, the Trump administration withheld $2.2 billion in federal funding and $60 million in contracts from Harvard University and will review a total of $9 billion for the university’s defiance of federal orders. The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on April 28 that they had initiated an investigation into Harvard for race-based discrimination over operation of the prestigious Harvard Law Journal. On Monday, McMahon sent a letter to Harvard President Alan Garber stating it would award no new grants to the Ivy League school, because “Harvard has made a mockery of this country’s higher education system,” has “failed to abide by the United States Supreme Court’s ruling demanding that it end its racial preferencing, and continues to engage in ugly racism in its undergraduate and graduate schools.”

“We’re going to see all kinds of ideas discussed of how to rein in higher education in this country, so that it is no longer working to advance un-American and evil agendas,” said Kilgannon. Trump has proposed revoking Harvard University’s tax-exempt status. In the past, some commentators have suggested taxing or seizing Harvard’s $53 billion endowment. Others proposed reducing, redirecting, or attaching conditions to funds flowing from taxpayers’ pockets through the federal government to often highly politicized universities.

Whether “it’s a reduction in funding from the government or revision of a tax status, everything is on the table,” said Kilgannon. “We are not going to put up with this kind of behavior from people who should know better.”

‘I Am Counting on Everybody’s Prayers’

Hice became emotional as he announced that Kilgannon “will continue the good fight, trust me, and at the same time, she will be leaving a huge hole here at FRC.”

“I will miss all of you,” Kilgannon, a beloved figure among FRC supporters due to her regular appearances on “Washington Watch,” told viewers. “But I am counting on everybody’s prayers for me and for everybody else who’s working to try to save the country.”

At the same time, “I will conform my will to God’s will. That is my prayer every day.”

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.

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The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

The post ‘We’re Going to Send Education Back to the States’: FRC Expert Joins Trump’s Education Dept. appeared first on Dr. Rich Swier.