US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday, the 20th of March, accompanied by students and educators, which aims to essentially dismantle the federal Department of Education, fulfilling a campaign promise and a long-held goal of some conservatives, according to Reuters and the BBC.
Accusing the department of “breathtaking failures”, the Republican president promised to return the money it controls to each individual state. “We will, very simply put, give education back to the states where it belongs,” Trump said.
Thursday’s order was the first step to “eliminate” the department.
“We will shut it down and we will shut it down as quickly as possible,” said Trump. “It does us no good.”
The White House acknowledged that a complete shutdown of the ministry would require congressional approval and Trump lacks the votes in Congress to do so.
Young students invited to the event sat at desks set up around the President and imitated him by signing their own fake executive orders.
TRUMP SIGNS ORDER ELIMINATING FEDERAL DEPT OF EDUCATIONpic.twitter.com/VbaLSP9MLt
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) March 20, 2025
The signing came after the State Department announced last week that it would lay off nearly half its staff, in line with Trump’s ambitious efforts to reduce the size of a federal government he sees as bloated and inefficient.
Education has long been a serious political issue in the US. Conservatives want states to have more control over schools and support private and religious schools. Liberals mainly support strong funding for public schools and programmes that promote diversity.
The White House argues that the Department of Education wastes money, pointing to low test scores, poor reading and math skills as evidence that its massive spending has not paid off.
However, Democrats acknowledged on Thursday that Trump could effectively abolish the ministry without congressional action.
“Trump knows he can’t officially get rid of it without Congress, but if he fires staff and breaks it up, the damage could be just as great,” said US Senator Patty Murray.
Most children in the US attend public schools, which are free and run by local authorities. Many people falsely believe that the federal government runs the schools and determines what students learn, as this is primarily the task of state and local governments.
THE DEPARTMENT OVERSEES ABOUT 100 000 PUBLIC AND 34 000 PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN THE US AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PROVIDES ONLY ABOUT 13% OF SCHOOL FUNDING, WITH MOST OF THE MONEY COMING FROM STATE AND LOCAL TAXES.
It provides funding for poorer schools and programmes, including money to pay teachers who teach children with special needs, fund arts programmes and renovate ageing infrastructure and old school buildings. The department also manages 1.6 trillion US dollars in student loans to help Americans pay for higher education.
For the time being, Trump’s plan is to downsize the ministry, keeping only basic tasks such as student loan management, grants for low-income students and support for children with special needs.
Most Americans do not support closing the Department of Education. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 65% of the population opposes its closure, while 30% support it.
For more than 40 years, conservatives have criticised the Department of Education and proposed getting rid of it. In 1981, just two years after it was created by Democratic President Jimmy Carter, Republican President Ronald Reagan called for its closure.
It is the smallest department in the President’s cabinet and uses less than 2% of the federal budget.