President Donald Trump is preparing an executive ordinance aimed at the final closure of the education department and, in a tiny period, dismantling it from the inside, according to three people informed its content.
The order of the order admits that only the Congress can close the department and instead manages the agency to start decreasing, they told you, speaking, provided that anonymity is preserved Because they were not authorized to speak public about internal issues.
This work is already underway. The novel administration tries to reduce the working force, putting dozens of employees on administrative leave and exerting pressure on voluntary staff.
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About 20 people with Elon Musk’s “Efficiency of the Government Department”, known as Doge, began to work in the education department, wanting to reduce expenses and staff, according to three people familiar with the situation and records obtained by Washington Post.
People said that at least some Doge employees gained access to many sensitive internal systems, including a set of financial assistance data containing personal data for millions of students enrolled in the Federal Student Assistance Program.
The Doge probe, which began last week, is a prelude to a more dramatic effort to ensure one of the promises of the Trump campaign: completely eliminating the education department.
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The White House clerk confirmed that he is preparing for executive activities this month, which will fulfill the promise of the Trump campaign to reject the department.
Some Republicans argued that it would be better to wait until the selection of Trump for the secretary of education, Linda McMahon, would appear before the Senate during the confirmation interrogation. Planning has been stopped when the Government Ethics Office reviews its documents, said the Senate advisor.
The expected ordinance would not close the agency, because there is a common consent in both sides that would require congress action. The Education Department was created by Congress and only Congress can eliminate it.
Such a congress action is unlikely, people in both sides say. Legislation would require surveillance 60 votes in the Senate, which means that at least seven democrats would have to support a plan that according to observers is unthinkable.
Voting in the 2023 chamber in order to abolish the department, considered to be an amendment to the Act on parents’ rights, collected 161 votes, but 60 Republicans joined each democrat in voting no. The bill was defeated.
“I wouldn’t hold this breath [closing the department] Ultimately, he will become a law, “he said in an interview in an interview last month Rep. He said he was supporting the closing of the agency, but such a plan has not sufficient support in the Senate, so such provisions would not be his “highest priority” of Trump’s absent plan to postpone the law.
“In the meantime,” Walberg said, “my effort would be to find all means with which we could reject the Education Department.”
It is expected that the order will be directed by the Education Department to develop a legislative plan to present to the Congress. But he will also instruct the department to develop a plan to reduce his employees and functions.
It was not clear how detailed the order would be, but the informed people and others who follow the education department found that they were expecting an agency I will try to transfer different functions to other federal departments. Project 2025, the conservative plan of Trump’s second term, described in detail where various elements of the department can land if they were closed.
For example, the 2025 project recommended that the student loan program would move to the Treasury Department and Civil Rights to the Department of Justice.
But even these movements would require congress action, experts said. The Act of 1979 defines the Department, specifies that the “should” agency “should include many of its main duties, including the Citizenship Bureau and the Basic and Medium Education Office.
A separate act, the Act on Higher Education, specifies that the Federal Student Aid Office should be placed in the education department. In the past, there was some double -sided interest in moving some of these functions from the department, but it is not clear whether the democrats would go in this environment.
Trump and his team probably understand that they will not be successful in the expansion of the education department according to the executive order, said Michael Petilli, president of Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank. He said, however, that the movement would be content with the Trump base and test the boundaries of the presidential power.
“It will be interesting if he orders part of the department to transfer to other agencies in violation of the statute,” said Petilli. “Then it will be a test and we will see what will happen in the courts.”
The National Student Legal Defense Network, a spokeswoman group, is investigating legal challenges in the face of all efforts to dismantle the agency.
“Effective closure of the Education Department through executive or mass burnout is a recipe for chaos that will disturb the life of students throughout the country,” said Aaron Ament, a former Obama administration clerk, who is the president of the group. “An attempt to do this without a congress is not only short -sighted, but illegal and unconstitutional.”
Despite this, Petrilli pointed to the ongoing saga in Usaid, which Trump – working through Musk – effectively closed and combined with the Department of State over the weekend.
“He can’t do it himself. He can’t really dismantle the Education Department, “said Petilli. “But boy, everything feels in the air now. … it was a few days, so who knows? “
Closing the Department was an output and on the Republican since its creation in 1979. (Schools and schools, not a federal government, run public schools.)
The department manages federal subsidy programs, including the title and worth $ 18.4 billion, which provides additional funds to K-12 schools with high poverty, as well as a program worth $ 15.5 billion, which helps to cover the costs of education for students disabled. The department also supervises the federal student loan program worth $ 1.6 trillion and sets the rules of what universities must do to participate.
And the agency is accused of enforcing regulations on civil rights that prohibit discrimination in schools financed by federally based on a race, sex and other factors. Execution orders signed after taking Trump’s office suggest that the Department will employ its right to refuse federal funds to schools that teach some things about breed and sex. Another order prohibiting transsexual girls and women from competition in women’s sports teams is expected when this week.
According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, Americans have mixed and partisan views on the education department. It turned out that 44 percent had favorable views on the agency, and 45 percent had adverse views. But among the Republicans and those who resist the Republican, 64 percent perceived the agency unfavorable, compared to 26 percent of Democrats and those who were democratic.
Moving to close the agency will certainly attract universal opposition.
“Parents do not ask for more chaos,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union. “We demand leaders who strengthen schools, protect our economy and stop treating the future of our children, such as political props.”
Donald Kettl, a retired professor from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, asked if the Republicans of the Congress would spend political capital to give up the agency when they are designed to carry out so many other aspects of the Trump agenda, especially the extension of his tax reductions in 2017.
He said that the breakup of the education department would offer slight savings to compensate for tax reductions, which makes effort to a huge extent.
“Is [House] The speaker is ready to invest political capital so as not to save any money, just move the boxes and not show much about it, except that the department has been lifted? ” – said Kettl.
Donald K. Sherman, executive director and main adviser to the advocate group of citizens for responsibility and ethics in Washington, said that Trump could weaken the department without conducting one function. He said that pushing older employees, looking at the budgets and dismissing the department’s inspector could make an agency a shell of her former self.
“Trump has already done a lot to weaken the department,” said Sherman. “People are demoralized. They are moved with the final purpose of destroying the critical arm of the government. “
