U.S. Education Department to be dismantled: Here’s what the agency does, and why it drew Trump’s ire

Trump signs executive order to dismantle Education Department, shifting authority to states and local communities.

Moving to fulfill a campaign promise, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday (March 20, 2025) calling for the dismantling of the Education Department, an agency Republicans have talked about closing for decades.

The order says Education Secretary Linda McMahon 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.”

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Eliminating the Department altogether would be a cumbersome task, which likely would require an act of Congress.

In the weeks since he took office, the Trump administration already has cut the Department's staff in half and overhauled much of the department’s work. Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has cut dozens of contracts it dismissed as “woke” and wasteful. It gutted the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on the nation’s academic progress.

The agency's main role is financial. Annually, it distributes billions in federal money to colleges and schools and manages the federal student loan portfolio. Closing the department would mean redistributing each of those duties to another agency. The Education Department also plays an important regulatory role in services for students, ranging from those with disabilities to low-income and homeless kids.

Indeed, federal education money is central to Mr. Trump's plans for colleges and schools. Mr. Trump has vowed to cut off federal money for schools and colleges that push "critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content" and to reward states and schools that end teacher tenure and support universal school choice programs.