On Thursday, March 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities calling on U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities.” At the signing ceremony, Trump stated that, “We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs. And this is a very popular thing to do, but much more importantly, it’s a common sense thing to do, and it’s going to work, absolutely.”

However, an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll taken in late February 2025 found that 63% of Americans surveyed said they would oppose getting rid of the U.S. Department of Education (USDE), compared with 37% who supported its closure.

Trump administration already laid off many USDE staff, reducing the a department that had 4,133 employees when Trump took office and has now 2,183 employees left. Nearly 600 workers resigned or retired and an additional 1,300 lost their jobs as part of a reduction in force.

Although the USDE was created by Congress and cannot legally be ended without congressional approval, it appears that the department may well be significantly crippled by the actions thus far taken against it.

To view the executive order, click here.

Source: NPR