Trump signs order aiming to close the Education Department

President Trump signed a long-expected executive action on Thursday calling on U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon to dismantle the Department of Education. The president signed the order at an event at the White House, alongside a dozen students sitting in desks and the Republican governors of Texas, Indiana, Florida and Ohio.

"We're going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs," Trump said. "And this is a very popular thing to do, but much more importantly, it's a common sense thing to do, and it's going to work, absolutely."

The move has been expected since early February, when the White House revealed its intentions but withheld the action until after McMahon's Senate confirmation. It now arrives more than a week after the Trump administration has already begun sweeping layoffs at the Education Department.

According to the administration's own numbers, Trump inherited a department with 4,133 employees. Nearly 600 workers have since chosen to leave, by resigning or retiring. And last week, 1,300 workers were told they would lose their jobs as part of a reduction in force. That leaves 2,183 staff at the department — roughly half the size it was just a few weeks ago.

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Text of the executive order was not immediately available, but a draft, previously obtained by NPR, instructed McMahon to act "to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law," an acknowledgement that the department and its signature responsibilities were created by Congress and cannot legally be altered without congressional approval. That would almost certainly require 60 votes in the U.S. Senate to overcome a Democratic filibuster.

Within hours of McMahon's confirmation earlier this month, she shared a lengthy message with Education Department staff attempting to rally support for the department's unwinding, calling it "our opportunity to perform one final, unforgettable public service to future generations of students."

"What's the end goal here? Destroying public education in America," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., in a statement. "The effects of Trump and [Trump adviser Elon] Musk's slash and burn campaign will be felt across our state — by students and families who suffer from the loss of Department staff working to ensure their rights under federal law."

In an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll taken in late February, 63% of Americans surveyed said they would oppose getting rid of the department, compared with 37% who supported its closure.

Blaming the department for lackluster student achievement

In a Thursday statement, the White House justified the department's closure, claiming that, since its founding in 1979, the Department of Education has spent over $3 trillion without improving student achievement.

According to The Nation's Report Card, one of the oldest and most reliable barometers of student achievement in the U.S., reading scores changed little between 1992 and 2019, though math achievement improved considerably. The pandemic also wrought havoc on student achievement, with many learning gaps remaining five years after schools first closed to in-person learning.

These "scores reveal a national crisis — our children are falling behind," said White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields in a statement to NPR. Trump's order, Fields wrote, "will empower parents, states, and communities to take control and improve outcomes for all students."

Federal dollars make up a small fraction of public schools' funding — between 6% and 13%, according to a 2018 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The overwhelming majority comes from states and local taxes. And those federal dollars are largely intended to help schools serve the nation's most vulnerable students: those living in low-income communities, including millions of rural students, and children with disabilities.

At Thursday's signing, Trump said he would "preserve" those federal funding streams.

The Education Department is prohibited by law from telling schools what, or how, to teach. Nor does it coordinate or control how states and districts handle even fundamental subjects, like math and reading.

Two rare success stories from the recent Nation's Report Card — Alabama in math and Louisiana in reading — highlight just how much control states and local districts have over their educational destinies. After abysmal finishes in 2019 (Louisiana in fourth-grade reading, Alabama in fourth-grade math), both states implemented sweeping changes to help their districts improve — with a big assist from federal COVID relief funds. Both states showed remarkable improvement by 2024.

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