President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to scale down the Department of Education, a move expected to spur lawsuits challenging the directive and that will likely require Congressional approval.
Trump has frequently discussed plans to eliminate the Department of Education dating back to the campaign trail and said in September 2024 he wanted to cut down on the federal government’s influence over education to “stop the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s youth.”
“Everybody knows it’s right, and we have to get our children educated,” Trump said Thursday. “We’re not doing well with the world of education in this country, and we haven’t for a long time.”
A White House fact sheet on the executive order said the directive aims to “turn over education to families instead of bureaucracies” and instructs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of 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.”
Still, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters earlier Thursday the executive order would not entirely shutter the agency but would “greatly minimize” it.
She also said the remaining agency would still oversee Pell Grants and student loans that provide financial aid for undergraduate students.
“It’s not going to be shut down,” Leavitt said. “Pell Grants and student loans will still be run out of the department in Washington, D.C., but the great responsibility of educating our nation’s students will return to the states.”
Trump said Thursday these programs and others that provide resources for children with special needs would remain but would fall under other agencies.
“They’re going to be preserved in full and redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them,” Trump said.
A Gallup Poll released in February shows Americans’ satisfaction with education has dropped significantly in the past decade. The poll found that only 24% of Americans are satisfied with the quality of education in the U.S. as of January 2025, compared to 37% in January 2017.
The White House has railed against the state of U.S. education and declining test scores by U.S. students.
Critics in the White House have pointed to the “Nation’s Report Card,” the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released every two years, published Jan. 27. The exam tests fourth and eighth grade students and found almost stagnant math scores for eighth graders compared to 2022. Reading scores dropped two points at both grade levels.
Trump said new efforts to upend the Department of Education would pave the way for states like Texas to provide education on par with countries like Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
“And then you’ll have some laggards, and we’ll work with them,” Trump said. “And we can all tell you who the laggards will be, right now, probably, but let’s not get into that.”
The Department of Education, established in 1979, seeks to improve coordination of federal education programs and support state and local school systems, according to its website. It also oversees student loans. financial aid programs and nondiscrimination policies.
