Trump signs order seeking to abolish Education Department

The Education Secretary will face a number of complications in closing the department, as the law doesn’t allow the president to unilaterally close a department, established by Congress.

Donald Trump holds up an executive order shutting down the Department of Education. Picture: AFP.

President Trump signed a much-anticipated executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to dismantle the Education Department.

Trump’s order directs McMahon, co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment, to facilitate the closure of the agency to the maximum extent possible and permitted by law. McMahon will face a number of complications in closing the department, a task she has called its “final mission.” But she already has a head start. The order follows 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.

Existing law doesn’t allow the president to unilaterally close a department, such as Education, that has been established by Congress. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, giving them control of the chamber, but 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.

Most of the department’s offices and programs are required by statute, with many codified in the law that created the federal agency during the Carter administration in 1979. McMahon has previously said Trump wasn’t intending to cut federal programs but to make them more efficient.

McMahon, a former head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term, said during her confirmation hearing under questioning from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) that the department clearly can’t be shut down without congressional approval.

Several lawsuits have already been filed arguing that the department has illegally cut programs required by law.

What the department does 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 mobilised in opposition to closing the department.

Another department role is the enforcement of 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 Trump would change it Trump said earlier this month that he wants to shift the federal role in education to the states. “We have a dream – and you know what the dream is? … We’re going to move education into the states so that states – instead of the bureaucrats working in Washington – so that the states can run education.” Trump recently suggested moving student loans to the Small Business Administration or the Treasury or Commerce departments. The 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 Republican 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.

Democrats generally oppose closing the Education Department and plan to mount a vigorous fight against the move, arguing that closing the agency would hurt children and families.

“The very premise of his plan … fundamentally goes against the bipartisan laws we have passed, established and funded,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.). “I think even a preschooler could tell you this is a terrible, terrible idea.”

Dow Jones