Trump orders a plan to dismantle the Education Department while keeping
some core functions
[March 21, 2025]
By COLLIN BINKLEY and CHRIS MEGERIAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order
Thursday calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Education Department,
advancing a campaign promise to take apart an agency that’s been a
longtime target of conservatives.
Trump has derided the Education Department as wasteful and polluted by
liberal ideology. However, completing its dismantling is most likely
impossible without an act of Congress, which created the department in
1979. Republicans said they will introduce legislation to achieve that,
while Democrats have quickly lined up to oppose the idea.
The order says the education secretary will, “to the maximum extent
appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate
the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over
education to the States and local communities."
It offers no detail on how that work will be carried out or where it
will be targeted, though the White House said the agency will retain
certain critical functions.
Trump said his administration will close the department beyond its "core
necessities," preserving its responsibilities for Title I funding for
low-income schools, Pell grants and money for children with
disabilities.
The White House said earlier Thursday the department will continue to
manage federal student loans, but the order appears to say the opposite.
It says the Education Department doesn't have the staff to oversee its
$1.6 trillion loan portfolio and “must return bank functions to an
entity equipped to serve America's students.”
At a signing ceremony, Trump blamed the department for America’s lagging
academic performance and said states will do a better job.
“It’s doing us no good," he said.
Already, Trump's Republican administration has 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.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said she will remove red tape and
empower states to decide what’s best for their schools. But she promised
to continue essential services and work with states and Congress "to
ensure a lawful and orderly transition.”
Part of her job will be exploring which agencies can take on the
Education Department's various roles, she said.
“The Department of Justice already has a civil rights office, and I
think that there is an opportunity to discuss with Attorney General
Bondi about locating some of our civil rights work there,” McMahon told
reporters after the signing.
The measure was celebrated by groups that have long called for an end to
the department.
"For decades, it has funneled billions of taxpayer dollars into a
failing system — one that prioritizes leftist indoctrination over
academic excellence, all while student achievement stagnates and America
falls further behind," said Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage
Foundation.
Advocates for public schools said eliminating the department would leave
children behind in a fundamentally unequal education system.
“This is a dark day for the millions of American children who depend on
federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor and
rural communities with parents who voted for Trump,” NAACP President
Derrick Johnson said.
Opponents are already gearing up for legal challenges, including
Democracy Forward, a public interest litigation group. Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the order a “tyrannical power grab”
and “one of the most destructive and devastating steps Donald Trump has
ever taken.”
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Secretary of Education Linda McMahon speaks to reporters at the
White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben
Curtis)
Margaret Spellings, who served as education secretary under Republican
President George W. Bush, questioned whether whether the department will
be able to accomplish its remaining missions, and whether it will
ultimately improve schools.
“Will it distract us from the ability to focus urgently on student
achievement, or will people be figuring out how to run the train?" she
asked.
Spellings said schools have always been run by local and state
officials, and rejected the idea that the Education Department and
federal government have been holding them back.
Currently, much of the agency’s work revolves around managing money —
both its extensive student loan portfolio and a range of aid programs
for colleges and school districts, like school meals and support for
homeless students. The agency also is key in overseeing civil rights
enforcement.
The Trump administration has not addressed the fate of other department
operations, like its support for for technical education and adult
learning, grants for rural schools and after-school programs, and a
federal work-study program that provides employment to students with
financial need.
States and districts already control local schools, including
curriculum, but some conservatives have pushed to cut strings attached
to federal money and provide it to states as “block grants” to be used
at their discretion.
Block granting has raised questions about vital funding sources
including Title I, the largest source of federal money to America’s K-12
schools. Families of children with disabilities have despaired over what
could come of the federal department's work protecting their rights.
Federal funding makes up a relatively small portion of public school
budgets — roughly 14%. The money often supports supplemental programs
for vulnerable students, such as the McKinney-Vento program for homeless
students or Title I for low-income schools.
Republicans have talked about closing the Education Department for
decades, saying it wastes money and inserts the federal government into
decisions that should fall to states and schools. The idea has gained
popularity recently as conservative parents’ groups demand more
authority over their children’s schooling.
In his platform, Trump promised to close the department “and send it
back to the states, where it belongs.” Trump has cast the department as
a hotbed of “radicals, zealots and Marxists” who overextend their reach
through guidance and regulation.
Even as Trump moves to dismantle the department, he has leaned on it to
promote elements of his agenda. He has used investigative powers of the
Office for Civil Rights and the threat of withdrawing federal education
money 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.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a Democrat on the Senate Committee on
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, dismissed Trump's claim that he's
returning education to the states. She said he is actually “trying to
exert ever more control over local schools and dictate what they can and
cannot teach.”
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.
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Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this report. |
