Trump Asks Students: 'Should I Do This?'

President signs executive order on Education Department
Posted Mar 20, 2025 7:00 PM CDT
Trump Signs Order on Education Department, to Unclear Effect
President Trump hugs Secretary of Education Linda McMahon after he signed an executive order in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025.   (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

The White House made a production out of President Trump's signing of an executive order to cancel the Education Department—bringing in governors, young students, and props—while acknowledging that he lacks authority to fulfill the campaign promise. "It sounds strange, doesn't it? Department of Education. We're going to eliminate it," Trump said in a ceremony Thursday in the East Room of the White House, NBC News reports. Pausing before signing, he turned to children seated at two rows of school desks and asked, "Should I do this?" Developments include:

  • The backdrop: Republicans have talked about shutting the Education Department since the 1980s. The effort intensified when a parents' rights movement sprang from the backlash to school shutdowns during the coronavirus pandemic, per the New York Times. Partisan divides also grew around President George W. Bush's "No Child Left Behind" and President Barack Obama's "Race to the Top" programs.
  • The order: "My administration will take all lawful steps to shut down the department," Trump said Thursday. He also said his order will be "returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs." Trump did not specify which functions or funding would be shifted from federal to state control, the Washington Post notes. States and local school boards already make the majority of decisions about how to run public schools and pay about 90% of the funding tab.

  • The job now: Education Secretary Linda McMahon is to ensure "effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs and benefits" while taking "all necessary steps to facilitate closure." In defending the plan, McMahon said in an interview that the department "doesn't educate anyone. It doesn't hire teachers. It doesn't establish curriculum. It doesn't hire school boards or superintendents. It really is to help provide funding so that the states themselves can help with their own programs. But that creativity and innovation has to come from the state level."
  • Farming out functions: Administration officials suggested ways other agencies could take over various responsibilities, per the AP. The Justice Department might assume civil rights enforcement, Treasury or Commerce might handle student loans, and Health and Human Services might get oversight of student disability rights. The equity part of the Education Department's job is another concern, for some. "Gutting the agency that is charged to ensure equal access to education for every child is only going to create an underclass of students," one advocate said.
  • Congress: Eliminating the department requires action by Congress, not an executive order. Trump said he hoped congressional Democrats would vote for a shutdown, saying "ultimately it may come before them." Right after the signing, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy said he'd introduce legislation to close the department "as soon as possible," per NBC. The top Democrat on the House Education Committee called the order reckless and said it would put "low-income students, students of color, students with disabilities, and rural students at risk."
  • Court challenges: Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, responded with "see you in court" before Trump signed the order. Skye Perryman, president of the advocacy group Democracy Forward, also pledged a lawsuit, per the AP. "We will use every legal tool to ensure that the rights of students, teachers, and families are fully protected," Perryman said.
(More Department of Education stories.)

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