Trump Orders Closing of Education Dept 03/21 06:24

   President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the 
dismantling of the U.S. Education Department, advancing a campaign promise to 
take apart an agency that's been a longtime target of conservatives.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday 
calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Education Department, advancing a 
campaign promise to take apart an agency that's been a longtime target of 
conservatives.

   Trump has derided the Education Department as wasteful and polluted by 
liberal ideology. However, completing its dismantling is most likely impossible 
without an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979. Republicans 
said they will introduce legislation to achieve that, while Democrats have 
quickly lined up to oppose the idea.

   The order says the education secretary will, "to the maximum extent 
appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the 
closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to 
the States and local communities."

   It offers no detail on how that work will be carried out or where it will be 
targeted, though the White House said the agency will retain certain critical 
functions.

   Trump said his administration will close the department beyond its "core 
necessities," preserving its responsibilities for Title I funding for 
low-income schools, Pell grants and money for children with disabilities.

   The White House said earlier Thursday the department will continue to manage 
federal student loans, but the order appears to say the opposite. It says the 
Education Department doesn't have the staff to oversee its $1.6 trillion loan 
portfolio and "must return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve 
America's students."

   At a signing ceremony, Trump blamed the department for America's lagging 
academic performance and said states will do a better job.

   "It's doing us no good," he said.

   Already, Trump's Republican administration has been gutting the agency. Its 
workforce is being slashed in half, and there have been deep cuts to the Office 
for Civil Rights and the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on 
the nation's academic progress.

   Education Secretary Linda McMahon said she will remove red tape and empower 
states to decide what's best for their schools. But she promised to continue 
essential services and work with states and Congress "to ensure a lawful and 
orderly transition."

   Part of her job will be exploring which agencies can take on the Education 
Department's various roles, she said.

   "The Department of Justice already has a civil rights office, and I think 
that there is an opportunity to discuss with Attorney General Bondi about 
locating some of our civil rights work there," McMahon told reporters after the 
signing.

   The measure was celebrated by groups that have long called for an end to the 
department.

   "For decades, it has funneled billions of taxpayer dollars into a failing 
system -- one that prioritizes leftist indoctrination over academic excellence, 
all while student achievement stagnates and America falls further behind," said 
Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation.

   Advocates for public schools said eliminating the department would leave 
children behind in a fundamentally unequal education system.

   "This is a dark day for the millions of American children who depend on 
federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor and rural 
communities with parents who voted for Trump," NAACP President Derrick Johnson 
said.

   Opponents are already gearing up for legal challenges, including Democracy 
Forward, a public interest litigation group. Senate Minority Leader Chuck 
Schumer, D-N.Y., called the order a "tyrannical power grab" and "one of the 
most destructive and devastating steps Donald Trump has ever taken."

   Margaret Spellings, who served as education secretary under Republican 
President George W. Bush, questioned whether whether the department will be 
able to accomplish its remaining missions, and whether it will ultimately 
improve schools.

   "Will it distract us from the ability to focus urgently on student 
achievement, or will people be figuring out how to run the train?" she asked.

   Spellings said schools have always been run by local and state officials, 
and rejected the idea that the Education Department and federal government have 
been holding them back.

   Currently, much of the agency's work revolves around managing money -- both 
its extensive student loan portfolio and a range of aid programs for colleges 
and school districts, like school meals and support for homeless students. The 
agency also is key in overseeing civil rights enforcement.

   The Trump administration has not addressed the fate of other department 
operations, like its support for for technical education and adult learning, 
grants for rural schools and after-school programs, and a federal work-study 
program that provides employment to students with financial need.

   States and districts already control local schools, including curriculum, 
but some conservatives have pushed to cut strings attached to federal money and 
provide it to states as "block grants" to be used at their discretion.

   Block granting has raised questions about vital funding sources including 
Title I, the largest source of federal money to America's K-12 schools. 
Families of children with disabilities have despaired over what could come of 
the federal department's work protecting their rights.

   Federal funding makes up a relatively small portion of public school budgets 
-- roughly 14%. The money often supports supplemental programs for vulnerable 
students, such as the McKinney-Vento program for homeless students or Title I 
for low-income schools.

   Republicans have talked about closing the Education Department for decades, 
saying it wastes money and inserts the federal government into decisions that 
should fall to states and schools. The idea has gained popularity recently as 
conservative parents' groups demand more authority over their children's 
schooling.

   In his platform, Trump promised to close the department "and send it back to 
the states, where it belongs." Trump has cast the department as a hotbed of 
"radicals, zealots and Marxists" who overextend their reach through guidance 
and regulation.

   Even as Trump moves to dismantle the department, he has leaned on it to 
promote elements of his agenda. He has used investigative powers of the Office 
for Civil Rights and the threat of withdrawing federal education money to 
target schools and colleges that run afoul of his orders on transgender 
athletes participating in women's sports, pro-Palestinian activism and 
diversity programs.

   Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a Democrat on the Senate Committee on 
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, dismissed Trump's claim that he's 
returning education to the states. She said he is actually "trying to exert 
ever more control over local schools and dictate what they can and cannot 
teach."

   Even some of Trump's allies have questioned his power to close the agency 
without action from Congress, and there are doubts about its political 
popularity. The House considered an amendment to close the agency in 2023, but 
60 Republicans joined Democrats in opposing it.