President Donald Trump has drafted an executive order calling for the U.S. Department of Education to be shut down, The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday, citing unnamed “people briefed on the matter.”
A draft of the order “directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to ‘take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Education Department’ based on ‘the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law,'” the Journal reported.
McMahon, during her confirmation hearing last month, had stopped short of saying she would shut the department down, arguing that takes an act of Congress.
However, McMahon told staff in an email Monday — the same day she was confirmed by the Senate — that “Trump and the American voters had ‘tasked us with accomplishing the elimination of the bureaucratic bloat here at the Education Department—a momentous final mission—quickly and responsibly,'” the Journal reported, adding:
Fully unwinding the department would require a filibuster-proof, 60-vote majority in the Senate, legal experts have said. The major programs it administers—including money for students with disabilities and student loans—are codified in law and have significant political constituencies. The draft order doesn’t mention Congress. …
With around 4,500 employees as of last year, the department is the smallest cabinet-level agency. Polls show most Americans are skeptical of eliminating the department, and Democrats have rallied in opposition to the idea.
The federal agency began in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter and currently has an annual budget of about $80 billion.
The department is in charge of, among other things, financial aid and student loans for college students, career and vocational education funding, Title IX regulations and oversight, and the Office for Civil Rights. It also maintains massive data records on all schools in the nation.
The department’s federal student loan portfolio amounts to approximately $1.6 trillion in student loan debt, and it is also responsible for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, program.
Conservatives in Washington D.C. have argued that the federal student loan programs could be moved to the Treasury Department.
McMahon, at her confirmation hearing, said the Office for Civil Rights could be moved to the Justice Department and disabilities support to the Department of Health and Human Services.
As The College Fix previously reported, the Trump team has already taken major steps in the last six weeks to purge the agency of diversity, equity and inclusion programs and employees.
