Trump to Sign Order Abolishing Education Department Soon, Reports Say

from Inside Higher Education

The Trump administration appears to have called off a planned signing of an executive order that would have directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps” to close the agency.

After The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets reported on the White House's plans, President Trump's press secretary called those reports “fake news” and added that an order to shut down the Education Department wouldn’t be signed Thursday.

The reported order would be the first step in carrying out Trump’s controversial campaign promise to abolish the 45-year-old department. A draft of the order provided to Inside Higher Ed criticizes the department for spending “more than $1 trillion without producing virtually any improvement in student reading and mathematics scores.”

Education advocates quickly shown staunch opposition to the executive action after the initial news reporters. The American Federation of Teachers, a key higher ed union, called the order a government attempt to “abdicate its responsibility to all children, students and working families.”...

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Why Republicans Want to Dismantle the Education Department

from the NYT

Right from the start, Republicans opposed President Jimmy Carter’s signature on a 1979 law creating the department, citing beliefs in limited government control, fiscal responsibility and local autonomy.

They argued that education should be primarily managed at the state and local levels rather than through federal mandates.

A year later, Ronald Reagan won the White House, his third attempt at the presidency, thanks to a promise that he would rein in a federal government that he said had overstepped its bounds on myriad issues, including education. In 1982, Mr. Reagan used his State of the Union address to call on Congress to eliminate two agencies: the Energy Department and the Education Department.

“We must cut out more nonessential government spending and root out more waste, and we will continue our efforts to reduce the number of employees in the federal work force,” Mr. Reagan said.

He was unable to persuade Democrats in control of the House to go along with his plan, and the issue started to fade as a top priority for Republicans — but never quite disappeared.

Newt Gingrich, then the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, called for the abolition of the agency in the mid-1990s. In the 2008 Republican presidential primary, both Representative Ron Paul and former Gov. Mitt Romney supported either terminating the Education Department or drastically reducing its size...

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Asked if U.S. Needs Education Department, Its Head Says ‘No’

from the NYT

Education Secretary Linda McMahon delivered a stark message on Friday about the future of her agency. Asked on “Fox & Friends” whether the United States “needs this department,” Ms. McMahon answered: “No, we don’t.”

In the interview, her first since she was confirmed to her cabinet post this week, Ms. McMahon said that President Trump intended to sign an executive order aimed at closing her department, but she declined to give details on timing.

She also did not address how the administration might persuade lawmakers to go along. The department cannot be closed without the approval of Congress.

Such a move, in a closely divided Senate, would require support from Democrats, which appears unlikely after Ms. McMahon was confirmed along party lines. During the previous session of Congress, a proposal to eliminate the department failed in the Republican-controlled House when 60 Republicans voted against it...

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