‘We’re Going to Shut It Down’

After weeks of rumors and one false start, President Donald Trump signed the long-awaited executive order Thursday directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to close down her department “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.”

The order won’t result in the immediate closure of the 45-year-old agency; only Congress can get rid of the department. But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that the aim is to reduce the size of the agency but still administer “critical functions,” such as enforcing civil rights laws, issuing student loans and disbursing Pell Grants.

The final order, which Trump signed during a ceremony that included several Republican governors and other key lawmakers, is largely similar to a draft version that Inside Higher Ed obtained earlier this month. It calls for McMahon to “return authority over education to the states and local communities” and ensure “the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.” Neither Trump nor McMahon, however, has outlined a plan for closing the department—a process that experts say would be lengthy and complex, even if Congress signs off.

Additionally, the order argues that closing the department would “drastically improve program implementation in higher education,” noting that the agency manages a $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio.

“The Department of Education is not a bank, and it must return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve America’s students,” the order says. (CNN reported that the White House has yet to find an agency willing to take over the student loan portfolio.)

Higher education advocates have warned for months that abolishing the agency could be catastrophic for institutions and students and others who rely on the department.

Kara Freeman, president of the National Association of College and University Business Officers, said in a statement that the order will add “to the turbulence colleges and universities are experiencing and the uncertainty students and families are facing at this critical time in the academic year.”

“Most troubling,” she added, “is that these collective actions involving the department could cause enough confusion to discourage students and families from considering a path to college.”

‘Orderly Transition’

The White House’s East Room, where Trump signed the order, was packed. On the stage, a handful of students, ranging from early elementary learners to high schoolers, sat at desks. Some were in school uniforms. Seated in chairs and standing along the walls were school choice advocates, key lawmakers and other families. Trump entered to boisterous applause.

“Everybody knows it’s right,” the president said shortly after he took the stage. “We’re going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible.”

Before signing the order, Trump looked at the kids around him and asked, “Should I do it?” Some nodded hesitantly while others seemed more certain.

Even without an executive order, McMahon, who sat in the front row, has started to gut the department. Last week, she laid off nearly half of the agency’s more than 4,000 employees. The mass layoffs eliminated entire offices, while others such as the National Center for Education Statistics were left with a skeletal crew, raising questions about whether the department can actually fulfill key functions.

Shuttering the department is unpopular with voters, multiple recent surveys have found. In a poll from Morning Consult, a data-driven insights company, a majority of respondents supported either preserving or increasing the department’s funding.

Trump, however, denied the polling numbers, repeatedly using phrases like “it’s amazing how popular this has been” in his remarks before signing the order.

It’s unclear what impact the order will have in practice, but it fulfills the president’s campaign-trail promise. He and other Republicans have argued that the department is ineffective, unconstitutional and a symbol of federal overreach.

Much of the Trump administration’s criticism about the department relates to K-12 education. For instance, a White House email ahead of the signing ceremony said the department has “spent over $3 trillion with virtually nothing to show for it,” pointing to students’ standardized test scores that show declines in math and reading proficiency. But the agency plays a key role in overseeing and funding higher education, and it’s not clear whether or how states can assume those duties.

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

McMahon said in a statement after the order was signed that closing the department won’t mean “cutting off funds from those who depend on them.”

The secretary pledged to follow the law and work with Congress and state leaders “to ensure a lawful and orderly transition,” adding that students “will be relieved of the drudgery caused by administrative burdens—and positioned to achieve success in a future career they love.”

Will Congress Act?

The big question moving forward is: Does Trump have the influence necessary on Capitol Hill to turn this executive order into law? Again, it’s important to note that while Trump and McMahon can, in many ways, gut the department from the inside, the agency’s existence is written in statute. Therefore, they cannot fully abolish the department without Congress.

Republicans on the Hill already seem amenable to shuttering the department. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and chair of the Senate education committee, said in a statement he will submit legislation “as soon as possible” to accomplish Trump’s goal.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican and a key voice on education policy, knows it will be a challenge to get enough Democrats on board in the Senate, but she’s hopeful.

“There’s a lot of work that’s going to have to be done, particularly to get 60 votes in the Senate. I think we are much closer to getting the votes in the House,” she told Inside Higher Ed on the White House driveway after the ceremony. “But I think the people want this … I really do.”

Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington State, on the other hand, implied that there’s no way Trump has enough sway in the Senate.

“Donald Trump knows perfectly well he can’t abolish the Department of Education without Congress—but he understands that if you fire all the staff and smash it to pieces, you might get a similar, devastating result,” she said in a statement Thursday morning.

In her view, wrecking the department will make it “harder for students to get help getting financial aid, jeopardizing the funding schools and families count on every day.”

“The billionaires running our government may not understand why federal financial aid or funding for working-class school districts or watchdogs protecting students from scammy for-profit colleges matters,” she said, “but the constituents I talk to every day do, and they are not sitting quiet while Trump seeks to destroy public education in America.”

Republicans See Opportunities

Republicans cheered Trump’s order as necessary. Rep. Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican and chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, told Inside Higher Ed that the order will lead to “gangbuster opportunities for education.”

When asked if he was concerned about disorder in core programs—like the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and management of student loans—Walberg said that they were already disrupted when the Biden administration botched the launch of a new FAFSA form last year.

“They didn’t get it right for three years,” he said. “[Trump and Republicans] are going to do it better.”

Ahead of the signing, Florida governor Ron DeSantis wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that abolishing the department would remove “cumbersome bureaucracy” and lead to “educational excellence.” He was one of several Republican state leaders who attended the ceremony Thursday.

Lindsey Burke, director for the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation, called the order a “tremendous step toward restoring education control to states, localities and parents.” (Burke recommended abolishing the department in Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for the second Trump administration.)

“Federal bureaucrats’ central planning cannot compare to the expertise that parents have about the needs of their own children,” she said in a statement.

A ‘Reckless’ Decision?

To Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, a leading higher ed lobbying group, the order “is political theater, not serious public policy.”

“The administration and Congress should focus on improving on the important work that the department performs that benefits ordinary Americans, not unilateral and thoughtless cuts to the department’s workforce and ability to serve Americans,” he added in a statement.

Advocates for students and borrowers decried the order as “reckless” and “heartless” and said it will “prove disastrous” for the future workforce.

“Without the department, fewer students would be able to go to college, student loan borrowers would default in droves, and fraudulent colleges would prey on students with impunity,” said Sameer Gadkaree, president of the Institute for College Access and Success, in a statement.

Other higher education associations also disagreed with the order, though the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities did note there’s a need to address the department’s “past tendencies” to overreach.

“APLU welcomes the opportunity to work with Secretary McMahon and Congress on finding the right balance to ensure the U.S. Department of Education is a positive force for students, families, educators, institutions, and the nation,” APLU president Mark Becker said in a statement. “Refocusing the department on its core mission is necessary, but an overcorrection would harm the national interest.”

Aaron Ament, president of Student Defense, a national legal advocacy network, said his group was preparing to go to court to stop the dismantling of the department.

“The notion that the department can be summarily closed or functionally decimated while maintaining ‘uninterrupted delivery of services, programs and benefits on which Americans rely’ … is a pipe dream,” he said in a statement ahead of the signing ceremony.