Recent outrage over the Trump administration’s efforts to “gut” the Department of Education reflect a misplaced panic. The panic has intensified in the wake of Trump’s signing of an executive order last week that would all but close the department. Many commentators fear the worst.

The results of the move will be far less dramatic than feared—and they are long overdue. Outright elimination of the department would require an act of Congress, but dramatically shrinking it, as Trump intends, will allow for greater local control. Many of the department’s programs can be transferred, with little disruption, to other parts of the federal government better equipped to administer them.

For decades, I led big-city school districts across the country. I’ve seen firsthand how the Department of Education’s bureaucratic expansion—in Republican and Democratic administrations alike—yielded little in terms of student achievement.

Both sides have experimented with education policy. President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind initiative instituted uniform math and reading standards and mandated that 20 percent of all poverty funds go to federally approved private-tutoring contractors. President Barack Obama’s Race to the Top program tied additional funding to compliance with top-down priorities. States and school districts were essentially required to use the Common Core curriculum and testing companies preselected by the department.