US President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order today calling for the closure of the Department of Education, a campaign promise made by the Republican, a White House official said.
The White House source, quoted by the Associated Press (AP), spoke on condition of anonymity.
Trump has called the Department of Education “a waste” and said it is “polluted” by liberal ideology.
However, completing its dismantling will likely be impossible without intervention from Congress, which created the department in 1979.
A White House statement said the order would direct 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, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of the services, programs and benefits that Americans depend on.”
The department is working to cut its workforce in half and to reduce the Office for Civil Rights and the Institute of Education Sciences, which collects data on the nation’s academic progress.
Created by Congress in 1979, the Education Department’s primary role is to disburse funds to the nation’s schools and colleges.
Trump argues that the department has been taken over by liberals who are imposing their ideology on schools.
Schools and higher education institutions have been grappling with demands to eliminate diversity programs or risk losing federal funding.
The Trump administration has given them until Feb. 28 to comply.
Schools and states already wield significantly more authority over education than the federal government, which is barred from influencing school curricula.
Federal funds account for about 14 percent of public school budgets.
Billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has already eliminated dozens of contracts it deemed ideological or wasteful.
The Institute of Education Sciences, which collects data on the nation’s academic progress, has been defunded, and the administration has laid off or furloughed many of its employees, halting projects under federal law.
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