BREAKING: Trump Signs Order To Eliminate Department Of Education

President Donald Trump took decisive action Thursday, signing an executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education, fulfilling a long-standing conservative objective.

“Today we take a very historic action that was 45 years in the making,” Trump declared. “In a few moments, I will sign an executive order to begin eliminating the Federal Department of Education once and for all.”

The move, which had been a key promise of Trump’s 2024 campaign, aims to return control of education to individual states and local communities, a shift Republicans have championed for decades. Supporters argue that the federal agency has become bloated and ineffective.

The order sets in motion a transition plan that will shift educational oversight from Washington to state governments, while full details of the process remain unclear.

“Everybody knows it’s right, and we have to get our children educated,” Trump said. “We’re not doing well with the world of education in this country, and we haven’t for a long time.”

According to a White House fact sheet on the executive order, the directive seeks to “turn over education to families instead of bureaucracies” and directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

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According to The White House, the Department of Education has spent over $3 trillion with little to no improvement in student achievement. Despite a 245% increase in per-pupil spending, math and reading scores have declined, and U.S. students continue to rank poorly internationally. Standardized test scores have remained stagnant, with the majority of fourth and eighth graders failing to reach proficiency in key subjects.

The Department of Education was officially established on October 17, 1979, when President Jimmy Carter signed the Department of Education Organization Act into law. It began operating on May 4, 1980, with the goal of centralizing federal education policies and funding.

However, the federal government’s involvement in education dates back much further. In 1867, Congress created the first federal Department of Education, but it was quickly downgraded to an Office of Education within the Department of the Interior the following year.

Throughout the 20th century, federal education initiatives expanded, particularly with the National Defense Education Act (1958) and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965) under President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” By the 1970s, education responsibilities were scattered across multiple agencies, prompting calls for a separate department to oversee education policy more effectively.

President Carter, fulfilling a campaign promise to teachers’ unions, pushed for the creation of the modern Department of Education, separating it from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). However, the department’s existence has been controversial since its inception.

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan attempted to dismantle it, arguing that education should be a state and local responsibility rather than a federal one, but his efforts were blocked by Congress. Since then, calls to abolish the department have persisted, particularly from conservatives who argue that it creates bureaucratic inefficiencies and undermines local control over education.