United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to dismantle the country’s Department of Education in a bid to deliver on a controversial campaign promise.
The department has long been pilloried by conservatives who argue that education should remain under state control, and that the department is polluted by liberal ideas.
Constitutional challenges stand in the way of a smooth rollout of Trump’s order. Here is all we know:
What does the Department of Education do?
The Department is a cabinet-level agency which looks over the national education policy of the US. It was formed in 1979 by Congress, prompted by former Democratic President Jimmy Carter.
The department distributes federal loans and aid for education including the Pell Grant which benefits low-income students; collects data on the US education system; identifies issues in the system; and enforces federal education laws pertaining to non-discrimination and civil rights.
Even before Trump signed the executive order on Thursday, his administration had been driving attrition to the agency.
Before Trump was inaugurated, the department had 4,133 workers. Since his inauguration, the staff has nearly halved with 600 employees accepting voluntary resignation, while the rest were placed on administrative leave. As of March 11, there were roughly 2,183 workers in the department.
The job cuts are happening alongside broader workforce cuts across the federal government led by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
What does the executive order say?
The order is called “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities.” It calls on long-term Trump ally, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, to facilitate the department’s closure.
The order says that that closing the department would give children and their parents a chance to escape “a system that is failing them”.
“The Federal education bureaucracy is not working,” the order says, citing 2024 data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The data showed 70 percent of 8th graders were below proficient in reading, and 72 percent were below proficient in mathematics.
How are students in the US performing?
NAEP’s 2024 report shows that there has not been a significant change in how students have been scoring on reading and mathematics since 2022.
But more broadly, NAEP data shows that since the early 1970s, average scores for reading for eighth graders have not significantly increased or decreased. From 1973 average mathematics scores rose steadily until 2012, after which they saw a slight dip and steadily decreased before picking up a little in 2024.
According to the Better Life Index, created by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and published in 2020, the US ranked 8th out of 41 countries in terms of educational attainment. However, in terms of student skill, the US ranked 19th. Additionally, the average student in the US fared above the OECD average in reading, literacy, mathematics and science.
In mathematics, the US ranked 28th out of 37 OECD countries in 2022, according to the Pew Research Center. In science, the US ranked 12th in the same year.
What do Americans want?
According to a 2024 opinion poll conducted by national non-profit All4Ed, 58 percent of respondents across party lines did not want the Department of Education to be abolished.
“This is political theater, not serious public policy,” Ted Mitchell, president of non-profit higher education organisation, the American Council on Education, said in response to Trump’s order.
“The administration and Congress should focus on improving on the important work that the department performs that benefits ordinary Americans, not unilateral and thoughtless cuts to the department’s workforce and ability to serve Americans,” Mitchell said in a statement on Thursday.
What will happen to student loans?
According to Trump’s executive order, loans and grants will continue to be delivered.
The department is the largest source of loans for US college students. The outstanding loan balance in the US stands at $1.69 trillion for nearly 43 million student borrowers.
The order says that “the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely” will be ensured.
Trump said on Thursday that these services are “going to be preserved in full and redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them”.
While it is unclear how this redistribution will pan out, Trump has said that states would take over most of the department’s functions.
What’s next?
Trump’s order can not roll out without approval of the Congress, since only the legislature has the discretion to close a cabinet-level department.
Some Congress members have stepped forward, saying they would support Trump’s move.
“I agree with President Trump that the Department of Education has failed its mission,” Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said in a news release.
“Since the Department can only be shut down with congressional approval, I will support the President’s goals by submitting legislation to accomplish this as soon as possible.”
However, it might not be easy for Trump to get congressional approval.
If the legislation is introduced, 60 members of the 100-seat Senate will need to vote to shut down the department. Only 53 Senators are Republican, falling short of the required majority.
In 2023, the House of Representatives voted on closing the agency. The move was opposed not only by Democrats, but also by 60 Republicans. The House currently has 218 Republicans and 213 Democrats.
