Next Executive Order Mandates Closing Education Department

President Trump plans to sign an executive order on Thursday designed to eliminate the Department of Education, White House officials said. A ceremony is scheduled in the East Room of the White House with Republican governors and state education commissioners, USA Today reports. Trump will instruct 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." A White House summary says the order also mandates "uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely."

The action would fulfill a Trump campaign promise while almost certainly prompting legal challenges. Wiping out the department completely would take action from Congress, which created it as a Cabinet-level agency in 1979. The administration had already begun sweeping job cuts in the department, affecting lawyers, student aid workers, and civil rights office staff members, per Politico. Republicans have called for closing the Education Department for decades, charging that it wastes money and steps into decision-making that should be left to states and schools, per the AP.

The executive order "will empower parents, states, and communities to take control and improve outcomes for all students," a White House press secretary said in a statement. The Washington Post reports it's not clear that a shutdown would have those effects. The department does not set curriculum or otherwise determine most school policies, and state and local governments provide 90% of school funding. McMahon is among the Trump administration officials who have conceded that closing the Education Department would require congressional action. (More President Trump stories.)