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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.
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