Trump signs order to 'eliminate' US Department of Education

LAST UPDATE | 20 Mar

DONALD TRUMP HAS signed an order aimed at shutting down the Department of Education, a decades-old goal of the American right, which wants individual states to run schools free from the influence of federal government.

Surrounded by schoolchildren sitting at desks set up in the East Room of the White House this afternoon, Trump smiled as held up the order after signing it.

Trump said the order would “begin eliminating the federal Department of Education once and for all.”

“We’re going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible. It’s doing us no good,” Trump said. “We’re going to return education back to the states where it belongs.”

Trump pictured alongside several school children in the Oval Office this afternoon. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The Education Department, created in 1979, cannot be shuttered without the approval of Congress — but Trump’s order will likely have the power to starve it of funds and staff.

The order comes as efforts are already underway in the department to drastically downsize its staffing and slash funding.

Trump has previously derided the Department of Education as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology, but finalising its dismantling is likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979.

A White House fact sheet said the order would direct secretary former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon “to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure (of) the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely”.

The Trump administration has already been gutting the agency. Its workforce is being slashed in half and there have been deep cuts to the Office for Civil Rights and the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on the nation’s academic progress.

People rally at the University of California, Berkeley campus to protest the Trump administration in California. Godofredo A Vasquez / AP Godofredo A Vasquez / AP / AP

Advocates for public schools said eliminating the department would leave children behind in an American education system that is fundamentally unequal.

“This isn’t fixing education. It’s making sure millions of children never get a fair shot. And we’re not about to let that happen without a fight,” the National Parents Union said in a statement.

The White House has not spelled out formally which department functions could be handed off to other departments, or eliminated altogether.

At her confirmation hearing, McMahon said she would preserve core initiatives, including Title I money for low-income schools and Pell grants for low-income college students.

The goal of the administration, she said, would be “a better functioning Department of Education”.

The department sends billions of dollars a year to schools and oversees $1.6 trillion ($1.48 trillion) in federal student loans.

Much of the agency’s work revolves around managing money — both its extensive student loan portfolio and a range of aid programmes for colleges and school districts, from school meals to support for homeless students. The agency also plays a significant role in overseeing civil rights enforcement.

Federal funding makes up a relatively small portion of public school budgets — roughly 14%.

The money often supports supplemental programmes for vulnerable students, such as the McKinney-Vento programme for homeless students or Title I for low-income schools.

Colleges and universities are more reliant on money from Washington, through research grants along with federal financial aid that helps students pay their tuition.

Republicans have talked about closing the Education Department for decades, saying it wastes taxpayer money and inserts the federal government into decisions that should fall to states and schools.

he idea has gained popularity recently as conservative parents’ groups demand more authority over their children’s schooling.

Trump promised to close the department “and send it back to the states, where it belongs”. He has cast the department as a hotbed of “radicals, zealots and Marxists” who overextend their reach through guidance and regulation.

At the same time, the president has leaned on the Education Department to promote elements of his agenda.

He has used investigative powers of the Office for Civil Rights and the threat of withdrawing federal education funding to target schools and colleges that run afoul of his orders on transgender athletes participating in women’s sports, pro-Palestinian activism and diversity programs.

The moves are being spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), whose rapid actions have met pushback in courts for possibly exceeding executive authority.

But even some of Trump’s allies have questioned his power to close the agency without action from Congress, and there are doubts about its political popularity.

The House considered an amendment to close the agency in 2023, but 60 Republicans joined Democrats in opposing it.

During Trump’s first term, former education secretary Betsy DeVos sought to dramatically reduce the agency’s budget and asked Congress to bundle all K-12 funding into block grants that give states more flexibility in how they spend federal money.

It was rejected, with pushback from some Republicans.