US President Donald Trump has shown he intends to move forward with plans to dismantle the Department of Education despite signalling from his administration.
“Well, I want to do that. Trump said at a signature ceremony in his oval office on Thursday.
The order to detain the Department of Education was expected to be one of the orders Trump signed on Thursday.
But in the time leading up to Trump’s release in the oval office, White House press chief Caroline Leavitt denounced the announcement’s report as “more fake news.”
Still, Trump doesn’t keep his intentions secret to shut down the Department of Education, the point he revisited Thursday. Reporters were asking if there was anything the president had objected to, or if there was a “two thoughts” that would lead to delays.
“We’re trying to bring the school back to the state. Let the state run the school,” Trump said he misrepresented the department’s functioning.
The Department of Education is accused of distributing federal financial aid, conducting educational research, and ensuring schools adhere to anti-discrimination and accessibility policies.
decisions left to state and local officials, not to set school curriculum.
Still, Trump doubled the idea that the sector is a barrier to state control over their schools.
“If they run their education, they would be far better than those sitting in Washington, D.C.
When asked about what would happen with the distribution of federal student loans and grants in the department, Trump suggested assigning the responsibility to other agencies.
“It’s going to be brought to either the Treasury Department or SMEs or commercial,” Trump said, naming the other departments.
“And we actually had that argument. I don’t think education should handle the loans. It’s not their business. I think it’s going to be brought to small businesses.”
Rumors of the executive order
Trump is campaigning to reduce the federal government, shutting down the entire agency and working to fire thousands of workers.
“We’re going to cut it down,” Trump said Thursday about the size of the government. “You can’t have that kind of fat. It’s getting bloated so no one has seen it.”
Republican leaders have already broken down agencies like the US Agency for International Development (USAID), shutting down their headquarters and giving its staff back to the skeletal crew of key employees.
However, the president of recent history is not trying to shut down the federal division. This requires council approval.
News outlets, including the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, have obtained draft executive orders that provide insight into how Trump approaches such feats.
The draft called on Trump’s appointee, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, to take “all necessary measures” to bring the department into the “maximum range appropriate and permitted by law.”
Trump has previously faced criticism for crossing the boundaries of his executive branch, including withholding required funds from Congress and damaging other entities that Congress has established, such as USAID.
Democrats were soon hit by news that a departmental end was imminent.
At a press conference Thursday, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer argued that the closure of the department is irreparably harmful to education, especially for low-income Americans and students with disabilities.
“The explosion radius of this order will be harmful to almost every child, every teacher, every family and every community,” Schumer said.
“To take the chainsaw to the Department of Education and undermine our mission to educate the next generation, McMahon, our school, family and children’s secretary, should serve.”
What is the criticism?
Like many institutions Trump has tried to dismantle, the Department of Education has long been a target of conservative rage.
In his campaign last year in his second term, Trump reflected right-wing criticism that the education system was too “awakening.”
For example, on the Republican platform in 2024, Trump and his allies said they would “ensure a safe learning environment from political interference.”
Part of their strategy was to close the Ministry of Education, which implements policies like Title IX that prohibit discrimination based on gender.
It also ensures schools adhere to federal laws that ensure equal access to education for students with disabilities.
Additionally, the sector plays an economic role in the national education system, providing about 8% of funding for public primary and secondary schools.
It also distributes federal research grants and funds to cover financial support for students at universities. Overall, the Department of Education has swept around $100 billion, accounting for 0.9% of the total federal budget for 2025.
But Trump outlined the vision of the Department of Education’s responsibilities being reallocated to individual states.
“We want to bring education back to the state, we want to return to the states there,” Trump said at the first cabinet meeting of his second term on February 26th. “Iowa needs education. Indiana should have its own education.”
But politicians like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders warned that by redistributing departmental work, it would simply increase the tax burden on individual states, particularly rural rural areas, to be drawn out.
“Do we need to make the Department of Education more efficient? We think so. Should we destroy it and wreak havoc for working-class families in this country? Sanders said at a press conference Thursday.
ABC News reported that the Trump administration had given up on Thursday’s planned executive order over questions about potential public backlash.
Legality of Trump’s Order
The Department of Education has roots dating back to the 19th century under President Andrew Jackson, one of Trump’s presidential idols.
However, modern organizations began to take shape in the 20th century as the federal government began to play a more assertive role in public education due to civil rights issues.
In 1979, then President Jimmy Carter established the Ministry of Education, known today, to integrate various federal programs under the same umbrella. That leader has since been a cabinet-level post.
However, for a long time, a potential obstacle to state rights has been a conservative pushback to the sector.
In addition to pushing for sector closures, Trump is also trying to reform education in the United States in other ways.
He and Secretary McMahon are supporters of the voice of the “school choice” policy, which allows parents to use taxpayer funds (usually allocated to public education) to pay private schools.
Trump also said his administration is working to roll back what he believes is an ideologically driven idea of racial and gender equality in education.
But Trump himself wasn’t shy about coordinating federal support for compliance with his political priorities.
For example, Trump wrote on social media on Tuesday that universities must face consequences including students taking part in “illegal protests” and suspension of federal funds.
His words were primarily understood to refer to pro-Palestinian demonstrations, but were ambiguous enough to include other protests.
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