Trump signs order to ‘eliminate’ US Education Department

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump on March 20 signed an order aimed at

“eliminating” the Department of Education

, a decades-old goal of the American right, which wants individual states to run schools free from the influence of the federal government.

Surrounded by schoolchildren sitting at desks set up in the East Room of the White House, Mr Trump smiled as he held up the order after signing it.

He said the order would “begin eliminating the federal Department of Education once and for all”.

“We’re going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible. It’s doing us no good,” he added.

“We’re going to return education back to the states where it belongs.”

The Department of Education, created in 1979, cannot be shuttered without the approval of Congress – but Mr Trump’s order will likely have the power to starve it of funds and staff.

The move honours one of Mr Trump’s campaign promises and is among the most drastic steps yet in the brutal overhaul of the government that he is carrying out with the help of tech tycoon Elon Musk.

The order directs 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”.

Democrats and educators have slammed the move.

The top Democrat in the Senate, Mr Chuck Schumer, called it a “tyrannical power grab” and “one of the most destructive and devastating steps Donald Trump has ever taken”.

Republican leaders, including governors Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas, were in the audience for the signing ceremony.

Mr Trump has cast the move as necessary to save money and improve educational standards in the US, claiming they are lagging behind those in Europe and China.

However, education has been a battleground for decades in America’s culture wars, and Republicans have long wanted to remove control of it from the federal government.

‘Beautiful day’

Mr Trump’s appointment of Ms McMahon, the former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, to lead the department was widely seen as a sign that its days were numbered.

He said at the signing ceremony that “hopefully she will be our last secretary of education”.

Ms McMahon, who moved to halve the department’s staff after being sworn in earlier in March, told reporters at the White House that the President “wants to get those dollars back to the states without the bureaucracy of Washington”.

Mr Trump promised on the campaign trail to get rid of the Department of Education and devolve its powers to US states, in much the same way that has happened with abortion rights.

But the White House said earlier that a rump education department was likely to stay on to deal with “critical functions” including loans and some grants for low-income students.

“The Department of Education will be much smaller than it is today,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters before the signing.

The Heritage Foundation – a right-wing think-tank that has seen many of its “Project 2025” recommendations adopted by Mr Trump – welcomed the move.

“It’s a beautiful day to dismantle the Department of Education,” it said on social media platform X.

Traditionally, the US government has had a limited role in education, with only about 13 per cent of funding for primary and secondary schools coming from federal coffers, the rest being funded by states and local communities.

But federal funding is invaluable for low-income schools and students with special needs. The federal government has also been essential in enforcing key civil rights protections for students.

Mr Trump and his billionaire adviser, Mr Musk, have already dismantled several other government agencies, effectively crippling them by slashing programmes and employees.

A similar move to dismantle the US Agency for International Development was halted on March 17 by a federal judge, who said the push likely violated the US Constitution. AFP