1 of 3 | President Donald Trump uses a pen as a prop while signing executive orders in the Oval Office on Monday. On Tuesday, he is expected to sign an executive order calling on Congress to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. Photo by Chris Kleponis/UPI |
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Feb. 4 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump is expected to follow through on campaign promises to abolish the U.S. Department of Education by issuing an executive order on Tuesday.
The Trump administration is drafting an executive order to eliminate the Department of Education, unnamed sources told CNN, ABC News and NBC News.
"We will drain the government education swamp and stop the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America's youth with all sorts of things that you don't want to have our youth hearing," Trump said while campaigning for a second term in the White House.
Trump cannot eliminate the Education Department via an executive order, but he can issue an executive order calling on Congress to eliminate the department.
The proposed executive order could be signed as early as Tuesday and would follow the Trump administration recently placing dozens of Department of Education staff on paid leave, NPR reported.
The Education Department employs about 4,400, has an annual budget of $79 billion and was created in 1979 by Congress and President Jimmy Carter.
The department oversees and enforces federal special education law and administers the federal government's Title I program that is tasked with helping students from low-income families.
The Education Department also manages the federal government's $1.6 trillion student loan program.
With a narrow Republican majority in the House and Senate, Trump might encounter legislative difficulties if a wholesale elimination of the Department of Education is sought, observers say. However, he might be able to whittle away at more discretionary elements of the department that aren't codified in federal law.
During Trump's first term in office, then Education Secretary Betsy DeVos suggested significant reductions in funding for the department in annual budget proposals, but Congress issued modest funding increases, instead.
Secretary of Education nominee Linda McMahon has not been confirmed by the Senate but could become a strong ally for Trump to diminish the Education Department's scope or eliminate it altogether while transferring many of its oversight to other federal agencies.
Trump previously sought to combine the Education and Labor Departments into one agency during his first term, but the GOP-controlled Congress did not support that effort.
Trump on Jan. 20 signed an executive order creating the Department of Government Efficiency under its administrator, Elon Musk, and tasked the DOGE with enhancing government efficiency before its ends on July 4, 2026.
Among potential targets cited by Musk is the Department of Education and in particular staff and programs aimed at diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, CNN reported.