The election actually was close, it was no landslide. Yes, I know Trump won the 7 pivotal states, but each was by a pretty narrow margin, and he won the popular vote by a pretty slim margin also (77 to 75). The vote was basically 50-48, Trump managed to get the edge where it counted.
In my view, Harris was a particularly poor candidate, I'm not talking about her positions, just her political acumen and skills. And she nearly won. I think her comments on "The View" might have flipped it. I think Trump got quite a few votes from folks who just couldn't vote for Harris and viewed him as the Lesser.
As for spending on education, I suspect some positions eliminated were silly positions, maybe not all.