Politics

REPORT: Trump Prepares Executive Action To Dismantle Education Department

Published

2 weeks ago

February 3, 2025

President Donald Trump is preparing to issue a series of executive actions to dismantle the Department of Education, according to a report from The Washington Post. Trump had previously promised to abolish the department outright while on the campaign trail, pointing to its record of inefficiency over the past several decades.

According to the report, which cites multiple people familiar with the order, Trump’s executive action acknowledges that Congress has the authority to abolish the department outright. As a result, Trump will reportedly be enacting a series of policies that will work to dismantle the Education Department from within by redirecting funding and reducing its workforce.

In the first two weeks of the second Trump Administration, hundreds of federal employees have already been placed on paid administrative leave, including all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) workers, several federal prosecutors who worked to prosecute Trump and his supporters over the January 6 Capitol protests, and dozens of FBI agents.

The work is continuing in the Department of Education, as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative has deployed 20 staffers to focus on the department. DOGE staffers are currently looking for ways to cut spending and staff, three people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

One senior White House issue confirmed that DOGE’s work is a prelude to executive action that is expected to be implemented later this month. The order is expected to direct the Education Department to develop a legislative plan to present to Congress, the White House official told the outlet. It will also instruct the department to come up with a plan to cut down on staff and reduce its functions.

Linda McMahon, Trump’s nominee for Education Department secretary, speaking at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland
Photo: Gage Skidmore

Specifics of the order remain unknown, though people briefed on the president’s plan expect many Education Department duties to be transferred to different departments. A plan drafted by the Heritage Foundation previously suggested that the student loan program should move to the Treasury Department, while civil rights enforcement would move to the Department of Justice. These changes, however, would also likely require congressional action.

Republican lawmakers have reportedly asked the president to wait until his nominee for Education Department Secretary, Linda McMahon, testifies before the U.S. Senate for her confirmation hearing. Scheduling for the hearing has currently been delayed as staffers for the government ethics office reviews her paperwork, a Senate aide told The Washington Post.

It is unlikely that Congress would agree to abolish the Department of Education outright. Such legislation would require a supermajority of 60 votes in the Senate, meaning at least seven Democrats would need to support the bill. The possibility of this happening is viewed as next to impossible.

In 2023, the U.S. House of Representatives considered an amendment to a parental rights in education bill that would have abolished the department. The legislation garnered just 161 “yes” votes, as 60 Republicans joined all Democrats in voting against it.

“I would not hold my breath that [closing the department] would ultimately become law,” Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), who chairs the House Education Committee, said in an interview next month. “So in the meantime,” the congressman added, “my efforts would be to find any means by which we may de-power the Department of Education.”

President Trump has long called for the Department of Education to be abolished, pointing to declining U.S. test scores and declining proficiency in math and reading across U.S. public schools. “And one other thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington DC and sending all education and education work and needs back to the states,” Trump said on the campaign trail last year.

“We want them to run the education of our children because they’ll do a much better job of it. You can’t do worse. We spend more money per pupil by three times than any other nation, and yet we’re absolutely at the bottom.”