US President Donald Trump is planning to sign an executive order on Thursday (local time) that aims to eliminate the US Department of Education, delivering on his campaign promise, USA Today reported, citing senior Trump administration officials.
Trump is expected to sign the order at a White House ceremony, which will have the participation of several Republican governors and state education commissioners.
Trump will instruct his education secretary Linda McMahon to take all necessary measures to facilitate the shut down of the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, USA Today reported, citing a White House summary of the order.
The order also called for the “uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
Trump’s new order will set up a new test for the bounds of presidential authority following the Trump administration’s efforts to close the US Agency for International Development, which was blocked this week by a federal district judge in Maryland.
The department, which was created in 1978 by Congress as a Cabinet-level agency, will not shut down immediately after Trump’s order. Eliminating the department entirely needs action from Congress.
In recent weeks, Trump has reduced the agency’s workforce, but the agency still exists and continues to oversee vital federal funding programs for schools.
In a statement to USA Today, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields said the order “will empower parents, states, and communities to take control and improve outcomes for all students.” He said recent test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress exam “reveal a national crisis – our children are falling behind.”
According to the White House summary, the order takes aim at “regulations and paperwork” required by the Department of Education, stressing that federal guidance in the form of “Dear Colleague” letters from the department “redirect resources toward complying with ideological initiatives, which diverts staff time and attention away from schools’ primary role of teaching.”
A White House official said federal funding for students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Title I funding for low-income schools and federal student loan payments will remain unchanged under the order that will be signed by Trump while McMahon works on a plan to “bring these funds closer to states, localities, and more importantly, students.”
Under the order, education programs that receive “any remaining Department of Education funds” will not be permitted to advance diversity, equity and inclusion or gender ideology, the USA Today reported citing the White House summary.
Republican Governors Ron DeSantis, Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, Greg Abbott, and Mike DeWine will be among the state leaders expected to attend the signing ceremony. Republican lawmakers have long accused the federal government of holding power over local and state education policy, although the federal government has no control over school curriculum.
Trump’s order comes after over 1,300 Education Department employees received termination notices last week as part of “reductions in force” across the federal government pushed by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Combining cuts with voluntary buyouts, the Trump administration has reduced the department’s workforce from 4,133 workers to 2,183 workers since he assumed office for the second term.
Trump has been criticising the performance of the US public schools compared with schools in other nations. In February, he said, “We’re ranked at the very bottom of the list, but we’re at the top of the list in one thing: the cost per pupil.”
Trump and other Republican lawmakers have made these complaints by relying on data from the Education Department’s research arm. Since assuming office for the second term, Trump has talked about giving states the complete authority to oversee schools, often signalling Iowa and Indiana as two strongly performing states that “should run their own education,” according to the USA Today report.
Local school districts and states already oversee what is taught to students in schools, while the federal government provides limited oversight for schools that receive federal funding. Trump’s order markets another test of executive authority embraced by the US President, who has ignored Congress to shut down USAID offices and dismantle the functioning of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
(With inputs from ANI)
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