Trump Signs Order to Begin Dismantling Education Department. Here’s What to Know.

Kill the beach! The Teacher's Unions too while they're at.

Trump Signs Order to Begin Dismantling Education Department. Here’s What to Know.

Existing law doesn’t allow the president to unilaterally shut an agency established by Congress

By Ken Thomas and Matt Barnum, WSJ

Updated March 20, 2025 6:07 pm ET

WASHINGTON—President Trump signed a much-anticipated executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to dismantle the Education Department, escalating a bitter political fight over the future of the agency.

“It sounds strange doesn’t it? Department of Education, we’re going to eliminate it,” Trump said Thursday, adding that he hoped McMahon will be “our last secretary of Education.”

Trump staged the signing ceremony from the East Room of the White House, where school children sat at desks and appeared to sign miniature versions of the order as the president signed the official document.

“See you in court,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Thursday. The union has been a fierce critic of the administration’s push to scale back the agency.

Here’s what to know:

What does the Education Department do?

In K-12 schools, the Education Department’s two largest programs provide money for the education of students with disabilities and those from low-income families. That funding totals tens of billions of dollars annually spread across the nation’s schools.

Most years the typical public K-12 school receives about 10% of its funding from the federal government. In higher education, it isn’t uncommon for a quarter or more of the operating budget of a large university to come from federal sources in the forms of the student loans, Pell Grants and research funding.

The Department also manages the government’s $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio. Each year it issues about $100 billion in new loans and gives away about $31 billion in Pell Grants, which are distributed on a means-tested scale to students enrolled in postsecondary education.

Each of these programs have large constituencies, and various education groups have mobilized in opposition to closing the department.

The department also enforces civil-rights laws that prohibit federal money from going to schools or universities that discriminate based on race, gender, national origin and other protected classes.

How would Trump’s order change the department?

In the executive order, Trump directed McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of the department, “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.” It calls for education authority to be sent to states “while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs and benefits on which Americans rely.”

The order is in keeping with Trump’s efforts to roll back left-wing ideas in education, saying that schools that receive federal funding shouldn’t be permitted to practice “illegal discrimination obscured under the label ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ or similar terms and programs promoting gender ideology.”

The order followed an announcement from the department earlier this month that it was slashing its staff by roughly half—cutting 1,950 staff positions in total—including 1,315 federal employees through a reduction-in-force process.

Trump recently suggested moving student loans to the Small Business Administration or the Treasury or Commerce departments. The Education Department has reduced staff and encouraged others to voluntarily leave through buyouts. McMahon made deep cuts to the department’s Office for Civil Rights.

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for a GOP administration, proposed putting funding for students with disabilities under the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office for Civil Rights in the Justice Department.

Does the order affect student loans or school curriculum?

At the moment, the impact will probably be minimal. The department doesn’t run schools.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that the department would still oversee major programs including student loans and major funding streams for schools. Trump said during the signing ceremony that many of the agency’s largest programs would be preserved.

Donald Trump has vowed to dissolve the Department of Education. Oklahoma schools superintendent Ryan Walters and former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan explain the potential impact of Trump’s plan. Photo Illustration: Ryan Trefes

Trump and McMahon have already eliminated various staff positions and a number of smaller programs, which could affect schools directly or indirectly. The research arm of the department has been dramatically scaled back, which will limit data collection in education and perhaps educators’ ability to understand what is and isn’t working in schools. Investigations into civil rights complaints filed by parents might also move much slower.

Can Trump legally close the department?

He can’t do so entirely on his own and there are open legal questions about just how far Trump can go without Congress. While Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, it is unlikely they would be able to gain support from Democrats to reach a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority to completely unwind the agency.

McMahon, a former head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, said during her confirmation hearing that the department clearly couldn’t be shut down without Congress.

One lawsuit by a coalition of Democratic attorneys general asserts that the mass reduction in force has illegally dismantled the department. Another lawsuit, by parents of students with disabilities, says that the cuts means those students’ rights won’t be protected.

There are also two suits that claim that Trump has illegally canceled grants to support teacher quality. Plaintiffs in both those cases have won preliminary victories.

Why is Trump trying to get rid of the department?

Trump and many of his supporters say that the department has been ineffective and ideological. McMahon has argued that test scores have been falling since the department formed in 1979. (Scores on a number of tests have declined recently, but were typically rising in the 1990s and early 2000s and in a number of cases remain higher today than in decades past.)

What are the arguments for keeping the department?

Democrats say that the department plays a crucial role in funding both K-12 and higher education and have assailed the Trump administration’s move as harmful to public education. They also say the department protects students’ civil rights, particularly those of students with disabilities.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) said shutting down the department meant that “class sizes will soar, educators will be fired, special education programs will be cut and college will get even more expensive, at a time when the cost of living is already too high.” He also said that Democrats would fight the order in Congress and the courts.

What do Americans think of the Education Department?

A Pew poll last year found that there was a nearly even split between favorable and unfavorable views of the Education Department. This was worse than most other federal agencies.

A recent Wall Street Journal poll found about 60% of Americans are opposed to closing the department.