OAN Staff Sophia Flores
Thursday, March 20, 2025
Update 2:25 PM – President Donald Trump has officially signed an executive order to reduce the size and scope of the Department of Education.
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On Thursday afternoon, Trump signed the long awaited executive order, which instructs Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to shrink the size and scale of the $100 billion department.
“Everybody knows it’s right. The Democrats know it’s right,” Trump stated prior to signing the order. “We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs, and this is a very popular thing to do, but much more importantly, it’s a common sense thing to do, and it’s going to work. Absolutely, it’s going to work.”
During his campaign trail, removing the Department of Education was a key promise Trump pledged that he would follow though on if elected back to the White House.
Trump and his supporters believe that demolishing the department and returning education back to the states will help strengthen parental rights. Addititonally, Trump believes that it will facilitate more successful academic outcomes for U.S. students.
9:45 AM – In a fact sheet regarding the measure, President Donald Trump is reportedly set to sign an executive order to close down the Department of Education on Thursday.
The executive order directs 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, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
Additionally, the mandate will also direct all other programs or activities receiving funds from the Department of Education to cease if the initiative involves advancing “DEI or [leftist] gender ideology.”
According the the White House fact sheet, this is occurring in an effort to “turn over education to families instead of bureaucracies.”
However, in order to officially abolish the Department of Education, Trump will still need Congressional approval.
The department was first established in 1979, after Congress passed the Department of Education Organization Act. It was signed into law by former Democrat President Jimmy Carter.
Since its creation, there have been calls by many, including from former GOP President Ronald Reagan — to dismantle the department in order for educational decisions to be determined at the state and local level.
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