The Trump administration has begun drafting an executive order to begin the process of eliminating the Department of Education, the latest move by President Donald Trump to quickly fulfill campaign promises, according to two sources familiar with the plans.
According to the sources, the move will be in two parts. The order would direct the Secretary of Education to devise a strategy to reduce the department through executive action.
Trump would also push for Congress to pass legislation to close the department, as those working on the order acknowledge that closing the department would necessitate congressional involvement.
The president said on Tuesday that he wants Linda McMahon, his pick for secretary of education, to “put herself out of a job.”
“I told Linda, ‘Linda, I hope you do a great job putting yourself out of a job.’ “I want her to put herself out of work – Education Department,” Trump stated.
McMahon, who led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, has yet to face a confirmation hearing for the top education position.
While calls to abolish or merge the Education Department with another federal agency are not new, the idea has historically failed to gain congressional support.
During President Trump’s first term, his administration proposed merging the Education and Labor Departments into a single federal agency. Even though Republicans controlled both the Senate and the House of Representatives at the time, the proposal did not pass.
This year, the Education Department is being targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency, which is led by Elon Musk, as CNN previously reported.
Dozens of Education Department employees were placed on paid administrative leave on Friday as part of the Trump administration’s larger effort to rid the federal workforce of employees associated with diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives.
On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly cited the department as an example of federal overreach, linking it to culture war issues. “We will drain the government education swamp and stop the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s youth with all sorts of things that you don’t want to have our youth hearing,” he told reporters.
On Tuesday, Trump, an advocate for policies that make it easier for families to spend taxpayer dollars on private education, criticized US educational performance and costs.
“We spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, and we’re ranked at the bottom of the list,” Trump said, adding that he wants to “let the states run schools.”
Even if he ends the department, some programs and funding may be transferred to other agencies, as they were before the department was established in 1979.
For example, federal funding programs for K-12 schools that support the education of low-income students and children with disabilities existed before the Department of Education was established.
When presidents have proposed budget cuts to the department in the past, Congress has resisted and appropriated more funding than the president requested approximately 71% of the time, according to a Brookings Institution analysis.
Even though the first Trump administration proposed reducing the department’s budget, the Republican-controlled Congress eventually increased funding.
