Latest News Trump to sign executive order to abolish the Department of Education….. Continue Reading

President Donald Trump is moving forward with plans to abolish the Department of Education.

Trump is expected to sign an executive order following through on a campaign promise to disband the department, claiming on the campaign trail that the department was full of “radicals, zealots and Marxists.”

A White House fact sheet states that the move will “turn over education to families instead of bureaucracies.”

The directive comes after the Senate voted to confirm Linda McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), to lead the agency March 3. McMahon issued a memo later that day outlining her support for the Trump administration’s plans for the department and that she would oversee a “new era of accountability” in the agency’s final days.

The reality of our education system is stark, and the American people have elected President Trump to make significant changes in Washington,” McMahon said in the March 3 memo. “Our job is to respect the will of the American people and the President they elected, who has tasked us with accomplishing the elimination of bureaucratic bloat here at the Department of Education — a momentous final mission — quickly and responsibly.”

Following reports that Trump planned to sign the executive order, the American Federation of Teachers issued a statement imploring Congress to oppose the executive order and will not “abdicate its responsibility to all children, students and working families, who deserve a future full of promise and possibility, not diminished dreams.”

The teacher’s union pointed to an NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll conducted in February that found more than 60% of Americans “strongly oppose” eradicating the agency.

“The Department of Education, and the laws it is supposed to execute, has one major purpose: to level the playing field and fill opportunity gaps to help every child in America succeed,” the American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in a statement March 5. “Trying to abolish it — which, by the way, only Congress can do — sends a message that the president doesn’t care about opportunity for all kids. Maybe he cares about it for his own kids or his friends’ kids or his donors’ kids — but not all kids.”

Despite Trump’s order, the president needs Congress to sign off on eradicating the agency, under Article II of the U.S. Constitution. Such a measure would require 60 votes to pass in the Senate, and there are only 53 Republicans currently.

Still, there is some appetite in Congress to eliminate the department. For example, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduced a measure Jan. 31 to nix the Department of Education by December 2026.

Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral development,” Massie said in a Jan. 31 statement. “States and local communities are best positioned to shape curricula that meet the needs of their students. Schools should be accountable.”

Trump told reporters Feb. 4 that even though he’d nominated McMahon to lead the Department of Education, he eventually wanted her to lose her job.

What I want to do is let the states run schools,” Trump said Feb. 4. “I believe strongly in school choice. But in addition to that, I want the states to run schools, and I want Linda to put herself out of a job.”