Trump will direct his education secretary, Linda McMahon, to take ‘all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.’
President Donald Trump is set to sign a long-anticipated executive order Thursday that seeks to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, delivering on a signature campaign promise to try to dismantle the agency, according to senior Trump administration officials.
Trump is expected to sign the order, which has been in the works for weeks, at a White House ceremony attended by several Republican governors and state education commissioners.
Trump will direct his 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,” according to a White House summary of the order reviewed by USA TODAY. It also calls for the “uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
Trump’s order, which is almost certain to invite legal challenges from the left, sets up a new test for the bounds of presidential authority after the Trump administration’s efforts to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development were blocked this week by a federal district judge in Maryland.
The department, established as a Cabinet-level agency by Congress in 1979, will not close immediately with Trump’s signature. Eliminating it in its entirety would require action from Congress.
Although Trump has reduced the agency’s workforce dramatically in recent weeks, the agency still exists and continues to oversee vital federal funding programs for schools.
Harrison Fields, White House principal deputy press secretary, said in a statement to USA TODAY 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.”
A final copy of the order was not available Wednesday, but it is expected to closely resemble a draft that USA TODAY and other media outlets reported earlier this month was prepared for Trump.
The order takes aim at “regulations and paperwork” required by the Department of Education, arguing 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,” according to the White House summary.