Trump to sign order to shut down Department of Education, White House says

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump will sign a long-anticipated executive order on March 20 that aims to

shut down the Department of Education

, acting on a key campaign pledge, according to a White House summary seen by Reuters.

Even before it has been signed, the order is being challenged by a group of Democratic state attorneys-general, who filed a lawsuit last week seeking to block Mr Trump from dismantling the department and halt

the layoffs of nearly half of its staff

.

The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), a leading civil rights group, also blasted the expected order as unconstitutional.

“This is a dark day for the millions of American children who depend on federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor and rural communities with parents who voted for Trump,” NAACP president Derrick Johnson said in a statement.

Mr Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk have attempted to shut down government programmes and institutions such as the US Agency for International Development without congressional approval, but abolishing the Department of Education would be Mr Trump’s first attempt to shut down a Cabinet-level agency.

Mr Trump cannot shutter the agency without congressional legislation, which could prove difficult. Mr Trump’s Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, but major legislation, such as a Bill eliminating a Cabinet-level agency, would need 60 votes and thus the support of seven Democrats to pass.

Senate Democrats have given no sign they would support abolishing the Education Department.

“Trump and Musk are taking a wrecking ball to the Department of Education and firing half its staff,” Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington said in a statement, vowing to fight what she called “Trump and Musk’s slash-and-burn campaign”.

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 while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programmes and benefits on which Americans rely on”.

It mandates that any programmes or activities receiving remaining Department of Education funds should not “advance DEI or gender ideology”, according to the White House summary. DEI stands for diversity, equity and inclusion.

Mr Trump has repeatedly called for eliminating the department, calling it a “big con job”. He proposed shuttering it in his first term as president, but Congress did not act.

In February, Mr Trump said he wanted the department to be closed immediately but acknowledged that he would need buy-ins from Congress and teachers’ unions.

“Federal government control of education has failed students, parents and teachers,” the White House said in its summary.

It added that the department had spent over US$3 trillion (S$4 trillion) since its creation in 1979 without improving student achievement as measured by standardised test scores.

Prior to the department’s creation, education was part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, which operated from 1953 to 1979.

Ms McMahon told SiriusXM’s David Webb Show on March 18 that the administration’s goal was to foster innovation and encourage best practices in education at the state level.

“The Department of Education doesn’t educate anyone. It doesn’t hire teachers. It doesn’t establish a curriculum. It doesn’t hire school boards or superintendents,” she said.

The department’s defenders say it is crucial to keeping public education standards high and accuse Republicans of trying to push for-profit education. An immediate closure could disrupt tens of billions of dollars in aid to K-12 schools and tuition assistance for college students.

Ms McMahon, the co-founder and former chief executive of the WWE professional wrestling franchise, who was confirmed by the Senate on March 17, had defended Mr Trump’s plans to abolish the agency. But she has also promised that federal school funding appropriated by Congress to assist low-income school districts and students would continue.

A source familiar with the order said student loans and services for children with disabilities were codified in law and would continue.

The department oversees some 100,000 public and 34,000 private schools in the US, although more than 85 per cent of public school funding comes from state and local governments.

It provides federal grants for needy schools and programmes, including money to pay teachers of children with special needs, fund arts programmes and replace outdated infrastructure.

It also oversees the US$1.6 trillion in student loans held by tens of millions of Americans who cannot afford to pay for university outright.

Legal challenge

Attorneys-general from 20 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit in federal court in Boston last week after the department announced plans to lay off more than 1,300 of its employees as part of the agency’s “final mission”.

The job cuts would leave the department with 2,183 workers, down from 4,133 when Mr Trump took office in January. They come on top of cuts through buyout offers and the firing of probationary employees as part of Mr Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the federal government.

The lawsuit argues that the massive job cuts will render the agency unable to perform core functions authorised by statute, including in the civil rights arena, effectively usurping Congress’ authority in violation of the US Constitution.

It said Ms McMahon “is not permitted to eliminate or disrupt functions required by statute, nor can she transfer the department’s responsibilities to another agency outside of its statutory authorisation”. REUTERS