Today, Donald Trump signed an executive order that aims to eliminate the Department of Education. Emphasis on “aims to.” Trump cannot unilaterally abolish a federal department created by Congress.

Let’s be clear about what this executive order will do: it instructs Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to facilitate the department’s closure while playing legal tricks to avoid a court making them stop. This approach indicates that the executive order is a preliminary step toward dismantling the department, setting the stage for further actions rather than causing an immediate shutdown.

Trump’s goal here is to weaken the department (and thus public education), starve it of resources, and scatter its programs to other agencies so that Congressional Republicans can claim the Department of Education is “functionally obsolete” and fire the kill shot with legislation abolishing the DOE. We saw this process begin two weeks ago, when the administration laid off half of the department’s staff.

So — even though this began with executive actions, it has to end with Congress. And that means we need to maximize pressure on Congress — in particular on Congressional Republicans — so they understand there will be an unimaginable political cost for this assault on students and teachers.

Past Republican efforts to abolish the department have failed, but this remains a long-term GOP goal, particularly under Project 2025. Lawsuits are already being filed against this order. While they make their way through the courts, we have to organize to save public education in America. Skip to the end for a list of ‘to-dos’ or read on for more info.

Without the Department of Education, millions of students and families will face immediate consequences. Public schools will struggle to maintain quality instruction as federal funding disappears, leaving states to decide how — or if — they will replace those dollars. The most brutal hit will be on students from lower-income families, those with disabilities, and those attending already underfunded schools. Among the immediate consequences:

• A massive decrease in federal funding will balloon class sizes, lead to the loss of 180,000 teaching jobs, and increase racial disparities in education.
• Title IX enforcement will be gutted, rolling back protections against sexual harassment and assault in schools.
• Accommodations for students with disabilities will be left to state politicians, threatening these programs entirely (95% of students with disabilities attend public schools).
• Students and families who receive support to attend college could lose Pell Grants or federal student loans, leading to more students dropping out, fewer choices, and fewer options for families.
• Many of the programs Trump wants to eliminate include key civil rights protections and funding for disadvantaged students, which will disproportionately harm marginalized communities.

Ultimately, eliminating the DOE is intended to critically weaken the American public education system, one of the cornerstones of our democracy. Which brings us to…

The conservative obsession with eliminating the DOE is as old as the department itself and a central pillar of Project 2025. Opposition to the department is not monolithic — there’s a deeply racist strain that opposes the department’s civil rights protections and efforts to desegregate education; there’s a (related) Christian Nationalist strain that opposes secular education and longs to see funding directed to religious institutions. The Trump administration is staffed with extreme ideologues who’ve long professed these views and have spent decades seeding the ground for this move. This executive order aligns with the broader conservative strategy to dismantle federal oversight in favor of state control, allowing red states to defund public education with fewer guardrails.

But there’s another, glaringly obvious explanation that undergirds so many of this administration’s policies to date: Billionaires see a way to make more money.

Trump, Musk and their billionaire cronies want to slash funding for public schools so they can lower their own taxes and cash in by starting for-profit schools. Who will write the curricula for those schools? Why, other right-wing billionaires! Whether it’s slashing education funding or pushing the GOP tax scam, these billionaires are exploiting the “states’ rights” argument to justify policies that weaken public schools, harm families, and consolidate their own wealth and power — all while ignoring that many states depend on federal education funding to keep their schools running.

1. Send an email right now and demand your Members of Congress oppose any legislation that helps Trump weaken or abolish the Department of Education. Republicans need the most pressure right now, but it’s also important for Democrats in Congress to know their constituents want them to fight.

1. First thing tomorrow morning, call your Members of Congress and make sure they got your message. We need to light up the phone lines and ensure they can’t ignore the public outcry to protect our schools.

#3) Make a lot of noise this week during recess. Every Member of Congress is home right now in their states and districts, and they need to hear how pissed their constituents are at Trump and Musk’s lawless attacks on programs — like public education — that we all depend on. Find an event coming up in your area and force them to publicly choose who they stand with: Trump and Musk, or the students, teachers, and families they’re supposed to represent.

No matter what we do, Trump’s executive order is going to hurt students, teachers, and our democracy. There’s no getting around that. But if we fight back — with lawsuits and with focused organizing — we can mitigate the harm as much as possible, beat back Trump’s assault on public education, and ensure the DOE outlasts this administration.