US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order calling for the dismantling of the country’s Department of Education.
However, the department cannot be dismantled without the act of Congress that created it in 1979. Republicans say they will introduce bills to achieve that.
Trump has long committed to breaking down the agency, dying it to waste and being contaminated by liberal ideologies. It has been a long-standing target of conservatives.
The order would put school policy almost entirely into the hands of state and local committees.
The president denounced the division that slowed American academic performance, saying the state would do a better job.
“It’s not useful to us,” Trump said in the White House.
The White House said the department will not be shut down completely, retaining responsibility for funding low-income schools and will distribute money to children with disabilities.
The White House said Thursday that the department will continue to manage federal student loans, but the order appears to be against it.
The sector’s workforce has already been cut in half, deeply reduced to the Civil Rights Office and the Institute of Educational Sciences, which collects data on academic advancements in the US.
Much of the agency’s job revolves around managing both a large student loan portfolio, including school lunches and support for homeless students, as well as a variety of aid programs for universities and districts. This agency is also important in overseeing civil rights enforcement.
Photo: Reuters
Trump was surrounded by school students during an event signing an executive order. Photo: Reuters
While states and districts already manage local schools, including curriculum, some conservatives are pushing to cut out strings attached to federal money and provide them to the state as “block grants” that are used at their discretion.
read more:
What are Donald Trump’s tariffs?
Sky News correspondent responds to Trump Putin call
Public school advocates said the department would eliminate leaving children behind in the fundamentally unequal American education system.
“This is a dark day for millions of American children who rely on federal funding for quality education, including those in poor and rural communities with parents who voted for Trump,” said NAACP President Derrick Johnson.
Democrats said the orders will be made in courts and Congress.
