What The Hell America!

President Trump is expected to sign a long-expected executive action Thursday calling on U.S. 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,” according to a fact sheet provided by the White House. Trump plans to sign the order at a ceremony alongside the Republican governors of Texas, Indiana, Florida and Ohio.

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.

USA Today was first to report news of Thursday’s signing.

Text of the executive order was not available Wednesday, 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 advisor 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 fact sheet provided to NPR, the White House justifies 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.”

The draft order previously reviewed by NPR declared “the experiment of controlling American education through Federal programs and dollars … has failed our children.”

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 McMahon’s confirmation hearing, multiple senators asked whether the department’s dismantling would include cuts to these key, congressionally-required funding streams. McMahon assured them, “It is not the president’s goal to defund the programs. It was only to have it operate more efficiently.”

According to one senior administration official, the executive action will “ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

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 4th grade reading, Alabama in 4th 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.