Report: Trump to Sign Department of Education Elimination Executive Order
The sign on C Street SW for the Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education building. 400 Maryland Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20202.
He promised it, conservatives have pined for it, and now the Trump Administration is going to move towards eliminating the Department of Education via executive order.
President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Thursday aimed at eliminating the Education Department, the White House confirmed Wednesday.
The order is Trump’s largest effort to fulfill his campaign pledge of dismantling the agency, but any move to close the department without congressional approval is expected to face legal challenges.
Harrison Fields, the White House’s principal deputy press secretary, said in a statement that the order “will empower parents, states, and communities to take control and improve outcomes for all students.”
However, it’s unclear how closing the department will improve these outcomes. Trump has repeatedly promised to “return” responsibility for education to the states. In fact, education has long been the responsibility of state and local governments, which provide 90 percent of the funding and set most of the rules. The department does not dictate curriculum or have a hand in most school policies.
USA Today first reported that the president plans to sign the order on Thursday.
A White House fact sheet about the planned executive order called on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps” to facilitate the closure of the department “and return education authority to the States.” “The Order also directs that programs or activities receiving any remaining Department of Education funds will not advance DEI or gender ideology,” the fact sheet states. Trump has already issued orders preventing such efforts.
The Education Department administers federal grant programs, including the $18.4 billion Title I program that provides supplemental funding to high-poverty K-12 schools, as well as the $15.5 billion program that helps cover the cost of education for students with disabilities. The department oversees the $1.6 trillion federal student loan program and sets rules for what colleges must do to participate. A senior administration official said on Wednesday that these programs, which make up the bulk of what the Education Department oversees, “will NOT be touched.” It’s not clear what that means.
Administration officials including McMahon have acknowledged that it would take congressional action to close the department.
