Education Secretary Linda McMahon has said that congressional approval is needed to close the agency. Deep cuts to the workforce are expected in the short term.
President Donald Trump is set to issue an executive order as soon as Thursday directing his newly confirmed education secretary to work to close the department she now leads, two people familiar with the situation said.
A draft of the executive order that circulated on Wednesday recognizes that the president does not have the power to shutter the Education Department. It would take an act of Congress and 60 “yes” votes in the Senate, which is unlikely given that Republicans hold only 53 seats.
Rather, the draft calls on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps” to facilitate the closure of the department “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.”
Officials including McMahon have suggested that might include trying to shift some of the agency’s functions to other parts of government — though that would also face legal hurdles because the agency’s major programs are assigned by law to the Education Department.
More likely is a continuation of what has already begun at the agency: deep cuts to staff, programs and grants. The department has already warned of a “very significant” reduction in force, or RIF, in the short term.
The draft was labeled “predecisional.” One person familiar with the matter confirmed that the draft was legitimate but cautioned that its details could change before it is issued. The White House declined to comment.
The department administers federal grant programs, including the $18.4 billion Title I program that provides supplemental funding to high-poverty K-12 schools, as well as the $15.5 billion program that helps cover the cost of education for students with disabilities. The department also oversees the $1.6 trillion federal student loan program and sets rules for what colleges must do to participate.
The executive order is cast as returning power over education to states and local communities, which Trump has repeatedly promised to do. It does not recognize that K-12 education, as well as public universities and colleges, are already controlled almost entirely by states and local communities. The federal government, by law, may not control school curriculum.
Trump suggests the federal government is doing too much on education, but he has also demanded it do more. The executive order is expected to amplify Trump’s call for schools to excise “illegal discrimination” in the guise of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs or risk losing federal money, which accounts for about 10 percent of K-12 public school dollars and a significant share of higher-education funding.
The aspiration to close the Education Department is no surprise. Trump campaigned on closing the agency and, hours after being confirmed by the Senate on Monday, McMahon emailed staff about their “final mission” — a clear reference to the end of the department.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, denounced the administration’s entire approach to the department. “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,” she said in a statement Wednesday night. “No one likes bureaucracy, and everyone’s in favor of more efficiency, so let’s find ways to accomplish that.”
In her confirmation hearing, McMahon agreed with Democrats that the administration cannot close the agency on its own, but she suggested some of the agency’s functions could move elsewhere in the government.
However, even those moves would require congressional action, experts said. The 1979 law that established the department specifies that the agency “shall” include many of its major responsibilities, including an Office for Civil Rights and an Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.
A separate statute, the Higher Education Act, specifies that the federal student aid office be housed in the Education Department.
Michael Birnbaum contributed to this report.