Trump sends mixed signals over the fate of the Department of Education

Democrats have denounced Trump’s proposal to close the department as placing added burdens on rural states and students.

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United States President Donald Trump has signalled he intends to move forward with plans to dismantle the Department of Education, despite mixed signals from his administration.

“Well, I want to just do it. I mean, we’re starting the process,” Trump said at a signing ceremony in the Oval Office on Thursday.

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A directive to wind down the Department of Education was expected to be among the orders Trump signed on Thursday.

But in the hours leading up to the Trump’s public appearance in the Oval Office, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denounced reports of an announcement as “more fake news”.

Still, Trump has made no secret of his intention to shutter the Department of Education, a point he revisited on Thursday. Reporters had asked if he had any “second thoughts” that would lead to a delay, something the president refuted.

“ We’re trying to get the schools back into the states. Let the states run the schools,” Trump said, misrepresenting the department’s functions.

The Department of Education is charged with distributing federal financial aid, conducting education research and ensuring school compliance with anti-discrimination and accessibility policies.

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It does not set school curriculums, a decision left to state and local officials.

Still, Trump doubled down on the idea that the department was a barrier to the states’ control over their schools.

“If they run their own education, they’re going to do a lot better than somebody sitting in Washington, DC, that couldn’t care less about the pupils out in the Midwest,” he said.

When asked about what would happen to the department’s distribution of federal student loans and grants, Trump proposed assigning that responsibility to other agencies.

“That would be brought into either Treasury or Small Business Administration or Commerce,” Trump said, naming other departments.

“And we’ve actually had that discussion today. I don’t think the Education should be handling the loans. That’s not their business. I think it will be brought into Small Business maybe.”

The US Department of Education building is seen in Washington, DC, on November 18, 2024 [Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo]Rumours of an executive order

Trump has been on a campaign to downsize the federal government, moving to close entire agencies and lay off thousands of workers.

“ We’re cutting it down,” Trump said of the government’s size on Thursday. “ You can’t have that kind of fat. It’s bloat like nobody’s ever seen before.”

The Republican leader has already gutted bureaus like the US Agency for International Development (USAID), closing its headquarters and reducing its staff to a skeleton crew of essential employees.

But no president in recent history has attempted to close a federal department, something that would require congressional approval.

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News outlets including The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal obtained drafts of an executive order that offered insight into how Trump would approach such a feat.

The drafts called upon Education Secretary Linda McMahon, a Trump appointee, to take “all necessary steps” to wind down the department to “the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law”.

Trump has previously faced criticism for overstepping the boundaries of his executive authority, including by withholding congressionally mandated funds and undermining other entities Congress established, like USAID.

Democrats immediately pounced on the news that the department’s demise was imminent.

At a news conference on Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer argued the department’s closure would irreparably harm access to education, particularly for low-income Americans and students with disabilities.

“ The blast radius of this order will harm nearly every child, every teacher, every family and every community,” Schumer said.

“Taking a chainsaw to the Department of Education and undermining its mission to educate our next generation would be horrible for our schools, our families, the children Secretary McMahon is supposed to serve.”

What are the criticisms?

As with many of the agencies that Trump has sought to dismantle, the Department of Education has long been a target of conservative ire.

In his campaign for a second term last year, Trump echoed right-wing criticisms that the education system had become too “woke” — too influenced by social justice priorities.

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In the 2024 Republican Party platform, for instance, Trump and his allies said they would “ensure safe learning environments free from political meddling”.

Part of their strategy has been to close the Department of Education, which enforces policies like Title IX, which bars discrimination on the basis of sex.

It also ensures school compliance with federal laws that guarantee equal access to education for students with disabilities.

In addition, the department plays a financial role in the country’s education system, providing approximately 8 percent of the funds for public elementary and secondary schools.

It also distributes federal research grants and funds to cover student financial assistance at colleges and universities. Overall, the Department of Education wields approximately $102bn, representing 0.9 percent of the overall federal budget for 2025.

But Trump has outlined a vision where the Department of Education’s responsibilities are reassigned to individual states.

“We want to move education back to the states, where it belongs,” Trump said at the first cabinet meeting of his second term on February 26. “Iowa should have education. Indiana should run their own education.”

But politicians like Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont warned that redistributing the department’s tasks would simply increase the tax burden on individual states — particularly rural ones with fewer resources to draw from.

“Do we need to make the Department of Education more efficient? I believe we do. Do we need to destroy it and wreak havoc for working-class families across this country? Absolutely not,” Sanders said in a news conference on Thursday.

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ABC News reported that the Trump administration scuttled its planned executive order on Thursday over questions about potential public backlash.

The legality of Trump’s order

The Department of Education has roots going back to the 19th century, under President Andrew Jackson — one of Trump’s presidential idols.

But the modern-day entity started to take shape in the 20th century, as the federal government started to take a more assertive role in public education, in part due to civil rights issues.

In 1979, then-President Jimmy Carter established the Department of Education as it is known today, in order to unite various federal programmes under the same umbrella. Its leader has been a cabinet-level post ever since.

But for just as long, there has been conservative pushback towards the department, as a potential hindrance to states’ rights.

In addition to pushing for the department’s closure, Trump has also sought to reshape US education in other ways.

He and Secretary McMahon are vocal supporters of “school choice” policies that would allow parents to use taxpayer funds — ordinarily earmarked for public education — to pay for private schools.

Trump has also said his administration is working to roll back what he believes are ideologically driven ideas around racial and gender equality in education.

But Trump himself has not been shy about conditioning federal support on adherence to his political priorities.

On Tuesday, for example, Trump wrote on social media that universities must crack down on students who participate in “illegal protests” or face consequences, including a halt in federal funding.

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His words were largely understood to refer to pro-Palestinian demonstrations but were ambiguous enough to include other protests as well.

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