Surrounded by schoolchildren and school desks, President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that calls for the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to be shut down — which only Congress can shutter.
“Should I do this?” Trump said before he signed the order, surrounded by kids who sat in school desks.
The Republican president said his order would “begin eliminating” the DOE altogether. The order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin winding down the department. The Trump administration says the department will continue to provide certain functions required by law, including administering federal student aid, providing funding for special education and low-income school districts, and enforcing civil rights protections. But the department has already been severely slimmed down, with around half of its workforce laid off as part of Trump’s efforts to slash the federal workforce.
Congress established the federal Department of Education in 1979 and, as a result, only Congress can completely eliminate it — something McMahon has acknowledged. But Trump can significantly limit the agency’s resources and authority.
The DOE’s power largely stems from its budget. The federal government has no authority to directly order local schools’ curricula or policies. But it can apply strings to federal money, requiring states and schools to abide by certain policies in order to receive funding. This is how, for example, the Obama, Biden, and Trump administrations all set national policies around transgender students.
Some congressional Republicans have introduced legislation to officially end the department, but it is considered unlikely to pass. Moments after Trump signed the order, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), the chair of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, said he will try to codify Trump’s move into law:
“I agree with President Trump that the Department of Education has failed its mission,” Cassidy said on X. “Since the Department can only be shut down with Congressional approval, I will support the President’s goals by submitting legislation to accomplish this as soon as possible.”
It remains unclear what the ultimate endgame will be for federal education policy: Many of Trump’s agenda items on education — including policies around transgender sports participation, bathroom use, and universities’ policies around protests — are dependent on the federal authority established through existing funding streams.
The DOE is a midsized department, ranking 10th out of the 15 departments included in the annual budget. Though it was a bipartisan creation, the department was immediately controversial with conservatives: The 1980 Republican Party platform called for its abolition, as have many subsequent GOP platforms. Critics point out that education spending has skyrocketed but test scores have not improved. Advocates, meanwhile, argue education policy must be national.
