President Donald Trump appears to have backed off issuing an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education on Thursday, but is expected to do so soon, according to multiple reports, including from the Wall Street Journal and NPR, which have seen a draft version and confirmed the details. The news comes a day after Linda McMahon was installed as the new education secretary, following her recent Senate confirmation.
Here’s what you need to know.
Dismantling the department has been a long time coming. In recent months, Trump has attacked it, calling it “a big con job,” while the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has already slashed dozens of contracts; placed dozens of staffers on administrative leave; targeted its diversity programs; and gutted the Institute of Education Sciences, where many employees have been fired or suspended.
Trump is all but guaranteed to face legal challenges because only Congress can abolish federal agencies, and the administration’s push is just another example of how Trump is trying to cross the boundaries of his actual presidential power.
Meanwhile, advocates and congressional leaders have been mounting a pushback campaign, including some Republicans, whose districts rely heavily on federal funding from the Education Department. Educators, along with members of Congress, are also worried about what will happen to the department’s billions-of-dollars budget meant for the nation’s students and schools.
Simply put, the Department of Education distributes billions of federal dollars to colleges and schools, and manages the federal government’s student loan portfolio. It also maintains and regulates vital services for our nation’s students, guaranteeing an education to low-income, homeless, and disabled kids, per the Associated Press.
The department is the smallest cabinet-level agency, with around 4,500 employees. Polls show more than 60% of Americans oppose eliminating it.
Interestingly, a majority of public K-12 school funding comes from the states, or locally, with only about 14% coming from federal funds. Universities and colleges, for their part, depend mostly on the department’s dollars for student financial aid and research grants, which have also been halted.
Trump has tied the funding to his own political agenda, threatening to cut off federal money to all institutions that teach what he calls “critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content,” and favoring those who support his school choice programs and ending teacher tenure.
The early-rate deadline for Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards is Friday, March 21, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
