President Donald Trump is expected to sign a long-awaited directive Thursday to officially wind down the Education Department, following weeks of steadily winnowing the agency’s staff and spending.
Trump’s pending executive order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate” her department’s closure “and return education authority to the States,” according to a summary obtained by POLITICO. The upcoming order will also tell McMahon to ensure the department continues to deliver its services, programs, and benefits.
The Trump administration is already making steep workforce cuts at the agency — including hundreds of attorneys, student aid workers and civil rights office staff. The precise language of the order, which Trump is expected to sign during an event in the East Room, was not immediately available.
The order will also direct that programs or activities receiving any remaining Education Department funds will not advance diversity, equity and inclusion, or gender ideology, according to the White House.
Several Republican governors — including Greg Abbott of Texas, Mike Braun of Indiana, Ron DeSantis of Florida, Bill Lee of Tennessee, Brad Little of Idaho, Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, Kim Reynolds of Iowa and Mike DeWine of Ohio — are expected to be in attendance, according to a White House official.
Conservative lawmakers and leaders from Moms for Liberty, the Heritage Foundation and Concerned Women for America also plan to be at the signing.
USA Today was first to report on the planned signing.
Critical elements of the president’s long-awaited executive order — including Trump’s precise plans to sign it — have been in flux for weeks.
There has also been a debate among outside White House advisers over whether Trump needs to issue an order to abolish the department at all, people familiar with the matter said.
Lawmakers, including two key Republicans, have expressed misgivings about abolishing the department — a sign of the rocky path to 60 votes Trump will need in the Senate to pursue the fullest extent of his demolition plan.
The White House, Trump’s appointees and billionaire Elon Musk’s government-slashing operation have already cut research spending, slashed the agency’s workforce and sought to excise diversity programs that have energized contemporary conservative politics.
Additional reductions among the agency’s rank and file are playing out this week ahead of Trump’s order signing ceremony, while the president’s budget proposals are expected to include significant cuts to department funding.
Megan Messerly contributed to this report.
