US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to begin dismantling the US Department of Education, taking a major step towards fulfilling the long-standing conservative goal of eliminating the federal agency. The move, announced in a ceremony at the White House on Thursday, raised major questions about the future of public education, student loans, and federal grants across the country.
Speaking from the East Room, Trump, surrounded by schoolchildren seated at desks, declared “We’re going to shut it down, and shut it down as quickly as possible.” However, closing a cabinet-level agency would require congressional approval, something Trump’s officials acknowledge they lack. Instead, the executive order directs education secretary Linda McMahon to take “all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the department of education and return education authority to the states.”
While the full impact of the order remains unclear, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the agency would be significantly reduced, but key functions like student loans and funding for at-risk students would still be managed by the federal government. Trump also backed this, saying that key responsibilities would be “redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them.”
However, this transition could prove challenging for McMahon, who is legally bound to uphold congressionally mandated functions like federal student aid and grants for low-income schools. The executive order highlighted Trump’s belief that returning control of education to the states will improve school performance, citing poor test scores despite high per-student investment.
“I really believe that they’ll be as good as any of them,” Trump said, referencing schools in Europe and China. “And then you’ll have some laggards, and we’ll work with them. And we can all tell you who the laggards will be right now.”
Trump also extended appreciation for the teachers, calling them “among the most important people in this country,” adding, “I don’t care if they’re in the union or not in the union. That doesn’t matter. But we’re going to take care of our teachers.”
As news of the order spread, education department employees struggled from the decision as nearly half of the department’s workforce had been put on notice for potential layoffs, and 1,300 staff members already terminated. Affected employees received an email on Wednesday evening instructing them to schedule time to collect personal belongings and return government-issued devices. Each individual was given 30 minutes to pack up, with instructions to bring their own boxes and tape.
One current employee described the order as “a slap in the face and kicking us while we’re down.”
“This EO underscores that Linda McMahon, Donald Trump, and the rest of this administration remain ignorant about what our agency actually does and how their efforts to dismantle it will negatively affect kids and families throughout the country,” CNN quoted.
Trump, who pledged during his campaign to dismantle the agency, has previously suggested moving some of its responsibilities to other departments. For example, he proposed shifting oversight of the $1.8 trillion student loan program, 40 per cent of which is past due, to the small business administration. However, finding a viable alternative agency to manage the debt has proven difficult.
The executive order is expected to face legal challenges, particularly from teachers’ unions. National education association president Becky Pringle condemned the move, saying, “Donald Trump and Elon Musk have aimed their wrecking ball at public schools and the futures of the 50 million students in rural, suburban, and urban communities across America, by dismantling public education to pay for tax handouts for billionaires.”
She continued that in case Trump’s actions are successful, “they will hurt all students by sending class sizes soaring, cutting job training programs, making higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle class families, taking away special education services for students with disabilities, and gutting student civil rights protections.”
Despite strong opposition, Trump remains adamant in his mission. “I told Linda (McMahon), ‘Linda, I hope you do a great job in putting yourself out of a job.’ I want her to put herself out of a job – education department,” he said earlier in February.
