President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday stripping away much of the Department of Education, but he stopped short of dismantling it completely.
Trump instructed 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” but said the department would continue to administer programs like student loans and Pell grants (that changed on Friday, see below).
The US president can’t just declare the department null and void despite campaign promises to shutter it. The Department of Education was created by Congress in 1979, and it can only be dismantled by congressional action.
Trump has referred to left-wing “indoctrination” in school curricula against the backdrop of a culture war over whether transgender youth should be allowed to play on sports teams matching their gender identity. During his campaign, Trump pledged to return control of the schools to states — though states and school districts already decide matters like curriculum and youth sports.
The administration is already taking direct control of arm’s-length regulatory agencies while trying to hollow out others, and it has laid off employees of the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, which is charged with protecting students’ civil rights.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavittsaid Thursday that the Department of Education would still carry out core functions, including providing funding for low-income students and students with disabilities. But on Friday, the president announced that the federal student loan portfolio, handled up till now by the Education Department’s Federal Student Aid, would be transferred to the Small Business Administration, while the “special needs” programs would fall under the purview of Health and Human Services.