President Donald Trump has taken a significant step towards fulfilling his long-standing campaign promise to dismantle the U.S. Education Department. On Thursday, he signed an executive order directing Secretary Linda McMahon to initiate the process of shutting down the department, with the goal of returning education authority to the states.
Trump has been a vocal critic of the Education Department, labeling it as wasteful and influenced by liberal ideology. “We’re going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible,” he stated before signing the order. “It’s doing us no good.”
Although the department won’t be completely abolished immediately, it will undergo significant downsizing. Critical functions, such as managing federal student loans and Pell grants, will continue to operate. The department will also retain its role in enforcing civil rights, although the specifics of how this will be achieved have not been disclosed.
It’s worth noting that completely dismantling the Education Department would require congressional approval, which may be challenging to obtain. The department was established in 1979, and its elimination would need to be authorized by Congress.