By Jeff Mason and Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Thursday that seeks to dismantle the Department of Education and leave school policy in the hands of states, making good on a campaign promise that has energized conservatives and worried education advocates.
The order follows the department’s announcement last week that it would lay off nearly half of its staff and is the latest step by Trump, who has been in office some two months, to reshape the U.S. government and upend the federal bureaucracy.
Trump is signing the order at a White House event at 4:00 pm ET (2000 GMT) with students, teachers, parents and state governors who support the effort, a sign of its resonance with Republican voters and Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
Education has long been a political lighting rod in the United States, with conservatives favoring school choice policies that help private schools and left-leaning voters largely supporting programs and funding for public schools.
Congress would have to pass legislation to shutter the department, and Trump does not have the votes to do that.
Though Republicans control both chambers of Congress, Democratic support would be required to achieve the needed 60 votes in the Senate for such a bill to pass.
Fights about U.S. education accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic. Trump tapped into that divide as a presidential candidate, and the order signing on Thursday, with the fanfare of an event in the White House East Room, is designed to showcase his delivery of a campaign promise even if it is not fully met.
The Education Department oversees some 100,000 public and 34,000 private schools in the United States, although more than 85% of public school funding comes from state and local governments. It provides federal grants for needy schools and programs, including money to pay teachers of children with special needs, fund arts programs and replace outdated infrastructure.
It also oversees the $1.6 trillion in student loans held by tens of millions of Americans who cannot afford to pay for university outright.
SLIMMED DOWN FOR NOW
“The Department of Education was founded in the 1970s and since then we have spent more than $3 trillion at this federal bureaucracy,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday before the signing.
“What has been the return on that investment for the American taxpayer? Levels that are less than ideal,” she said, noting disappointing literacy levels and testing scores among American children.
Leavitt said student loans and Pell Grants would still be handled by a slimmed-down education department, meaning Trump’s initial goal of closing it altogether was not happening, at least for now.
Trump has acknowledged that he would need buy-in from lawmakers and teachers’ unions to fulfill his campaign pledge. He doesn’t have it.
“See you in court,” the head of the American Federation of Teachers union, Randi Weingarten, said in a statement.
A majority of the American public also is not on board.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found last month that respondents opposed shuttering the Department of Education by roughly two to one – 65% to 30%. The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which was conducted online and nationwide, surveyed 4,145 U.S. adults and its results had a margin of error of about 2 percentage points.
Federal aid accounts for 15% of all K-12 revenue in states that voted for Trump in the 2024 election, compared with 11% of revenue in states that voted for his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, according to a Reuters analysis of Census Department data.
Two programs administered by the Department of Education — aid for low income schools and students with special needs — are the largest of those federal aid programs.
Conservatives’ “Project 2025” blueprint called for redistributing the major Department of Education grant programs — the Title I program for low-income schools, for example, would be handled by the Health and Human Services Department and gradually phased out over 10 years. States would have more latitude over how the money is spent.
Republicans have shown little appetite in the past for overhauling the Title I program, which plays the biggest role, on a per capita basis, in conservative states like Alaska, Mississippi, Louisiana and Wyoming, according to census figures.
A proposal to allow that money to be used by private schools and home schools failed in the House of Representatives by 83-331 in March 2023, with more than half of the chamber’s Republicans voting against it.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Andy Sullivan; Editing by Alistair Bell)
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