Donald Trump signs executive order to shut down US Department of Education
20 March 2025, 22:01
Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the dismantling of the US Department of Education - a move he says
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The move by Trump sees the US President advance a key campaign pledge, having previously vowed to break down the agency that has been a long-time target of conservatives.
The order is officially titled “Improving education outcomes by empowering parents, states, and communities” and claims the department "plainly failed our children, our teachers, and our families".
The order adds that closing it will provide children and families with an “opportunity to escape a system that is failing them".
The US President has criticised the department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology, but completing its dismantling is most likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979.
"It's doing us no good," he said at a White House ceremony, surrounded by school aged children.
The White House said the department will not close completely right now. It will retain certain critical functions like managing federal student loans.
Mr Trump said his administration will close the department beyond its "core necessities", preserving its responsibilities for funding for low-income schools, grants and money for children with disabilities.
The president blamed the department for America's lagging academic performance and said states will do a better job.
Bill Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee, says he will introduce legislation to obtain congressional approval.
"I agree with President Trump that the Department of Education has failed its mission," said the Republican senator from Louisiana.
"Since the department can only be shut down with congressional approval, I will support the president's goals by submitting legislation to accomplish this as soon as possible."
Mr Cassidy served as an academic physician in the Louisiana State University public hospital system which has always been heavily dependent on federal money.
About six in 10 registered voters oppose Mr Trump's plan to eliminate the department, according to a Quinnipiac poll this month.
Nearly all Democratic voters and about two-thirds of independents were against the move, but only about two in 10 Republican voters felt the same way.
An Ipsos poll from February found about six in 10 US adults overall opposed proposals to dismantle the department.
