Trump orders a plan to dismantle the Education Department while keeping some core functions

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the U.S. Education Department, advancing a campaign promise to take apart an agency that’s been a longtime target of conservatives.

Trump has derided the Education Department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However, completing its dismantling is most likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979. Republicans said they will introduce legislation to achieve that, while Democrats have quickly lined up to oppose the idea.

The order says the education secretary will, “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities."

It offers no detail on how that work will be carried out or where it will be targeted, though the White House said the agency will retain certain critical functions.

Trump said his administration will close the department beyond its "core necessities," preserving its responsibilities for Title I funding for low-income schools, Pell grants and money for children with disabilities.

The White House said earlier Thursday the department will continue to manage federal student loans, but the order appears to say the opposite. It says the Education Department doesn't have the staff to oversee its $1.6 trillion loan portfolio and “must return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve America's students.”

At a signing ceremony, Trump blamed the department for America’s lagging academic performance and said states will do a better job.

“It’s doing us no good," he said.

Already, Trump's Republican administration has been gutting the agency. Its workforce is being slashed in half, and there have been deep cuts to the Office for Civil Rights and the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on the nation’s academic progress.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said she will remove red tape and empower states to decide what’s best for their schools. But she promised to continue essential services and work with states and Congress "to ensure a lawful and orderly transition.”

Part of her job will be exploring which agencies can take on the Education Department's various roles, she said.

“The Department of Justice already has a civil rights office, and I think that there is an opportunity to discuss with Attorney General Bondi about locating some of our civil rights work there,” McMahon told reporters after the signing.

The measure was celebrated by groups that have long called for an end to the department.

"For decades, it has funneled billions of taxpayer dollars into a failing system — one that prioritizes leftist indoctrination over academic excellence, all while student achievement stagnates and America falls further behind," said Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation.

Advocates for public schools said eliminating the department would leave children behind in a fundamentally unequal education system.

“This is a dark day for the millions of American children who depend on federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor and rural communities with parents who voted for Trump,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said.

Opponents are already gearing up for legal challenges, including Democracy Forward, a public interest litigation group. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the order a “tyrannical power grab” and “one of the most destructive and devastating steps Donald Trump has ever taken.”

Margaret Spellings, who served as education secretary under Republican President George W. Bush, questioned whether whether the department will be able to accomplish its remaining missions, and whether it will ultimately improve schools.

“Will it distract us from the ability to focus urgently on student achievement, or will people be figuring out how to run the train?" she asked.

Spellings said schools have always been run by local and state officials, and rejected the idea that the Education Department and federal government have been holding them back.

Currently, much of the agency’s work revolves around managing money — both its extensive student loan portfolio and a range of aid programs for colleges and school districts, like school meals and support for homeless students. The agency also is key in overseeing civil rights enforcement.

The Trump administration has not addressed the fate of other department operations, like its support for for technical education and adult learning, grants for rural schools and after-school programs, and a federal work-study program that provides employment to students with financial need.

States and districts already control local schools, including curriculum, but some conservatives have pushed to cut strings attached to federal money and provide it to states as “block grants” to be used at their discretion.

Block granting has raised questions about vital funding sources including Title I, the largest source of federal money to America’s K-12 schools. Families of children with disabilities have despaired over what could come of the federal department's work protecting their rights.

Federal funding makes up a relatively small portion of public school budgets — roughly 14%. The money often supports supplemental programs for vulnerable students, such as the McKinney-Vento program for homeless students or Title I for low-income schools.

Republicans have talked about closing the Education Department for decades, saying it wastes money and inserts the federal government into decisions that should fall to states and schools. The idea has gained popularity recently as conservative parents’ groups demand more authority over their children’s schooling.

In his platform, Trump promised to close the department “and send it back to the states, where it belongs.” Trump has cast the department as a hotbed of “radicals, zealots and Marxists” who overextend their reach through guidance and regulation.

Even as Trump moves to dismantle the department, he has leaned on it to promote elements of his agenda. He has used investigative powers of the Office for Civil Rights and the threat of withdrawing federal education money to target schools and colleges that run afoul of his orders on transgender athletes participating in women's sports, pro-Palestinian activism and diversity programs.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a Democrat on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, dismissed Trump's claim that he's returning education to the states. She said he is actually “trying to exert ever more control over local schools and dictate what they can and cannot teach.”

Even some of Trump’s allies have questioned his power to close the agency without action from Congress, and there are doubts about its political popularity. The House considered an amendment to close the agency in 2023, but 60 Republicans joined Democrats in opposing it.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025.(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Young people listen as President Donald Trump speaks at an education event and executive order signing in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Donald Trump, right, looking over to a young person during an education event and executive order signing in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

President Donald Trump, left, holds up a signed executive order as young people hold up copies of the executive order they signed at an education event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Dozens of people gather in downtown Niles, Mich., Thursday, March 20, 2025, to protest recent government cuts in the Department of Education. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

Kay May joins dozens of people gathered in downtown Niles, Mich., Thursday, March 20, 2025, to protest recent government cuts in the Department of Education. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

Dozens of people gather in downtown Niles, Mich., Thursday, March 20, 2025, to protest recent government cuts in the Department of Education. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

Cindy Mugent joins dozens of people gathered in downtown Niles, Mich., Thursday, March 20, 2025, to protest recent government cuts in the Department of Education. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

Bob Blazo blows a horn as he joins dozens of people gathered in downtown Niles, Mich., Thursday, March 20, 2025, to protest recent government cuts in the Department of Education. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

President Donald Trump arrives at the annual St. Patrick's Day luncheon at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump walks with Elon Musk's son X Æ A-Xii on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, March 14, 2025, in Washington before they depart on Marine One. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Protestors gather during a demonstration at the headquarters of the Department of Education, Friday, March 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Protestors gather during a demonstration at the headquarters of the Department of Education, Friday, March 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Sarah Cummings carries a protest sign to save the Department of Education while joining other protesters outside a Tesla showroom and service center in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles on Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Senator Steve Daines, a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, with warm exchanges in front of journalists on Saturday even as tensions between their countries spiked over trade tariffs and the handling of the illegal trade in fentanyl.

Daines, the first member of Congress to visit Beijing since Trump took office in January, will meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Sunday and the nation's No. 2 official will give him an introduction to China's policies, according to He.

Daines, who previously worked for American consumer goods company Procter & Gamble in south China's economic hub of Guangzhou, said this trip marked his sixth visit to China and he had met Li in 2018 when he served as the party secretary of Shanghai.

He said this visit comes at a time when there are some important issues to discuss between China and the U.S.

“I’ve always believed in having constructive dialogue and that has been the nature of all my visits to China over the course of many years,” he said.

The U.S. Embassy in China posted on X later Saturday that Daines voiced Trump's ongoing call for Beijing to stop the flow of fentanyl precursors from China. Daines also expressed hopes that further high-level talks between the two countries will take place in the near future, the post added.

Ahead of the trip that began on Thursday, his office said he is coordinating closely with the White House and will be “carrying President Trump’s America First agenda.” Daines served as a go-between during the first Trump administration when tariffs were also a major issue.

Daines, a senator for Montana, said on X earlier this week that he would be talking with Chinese officials about curbing the production and distribution of fentanyl and “the need to reduce the trade deficit and ensure fair market access for our Montana farmers, ranchers and producers.”

Just months into Trump's second term, tensions between the world’s two largest economies have risen after the U.S. imposed 20% duties on Chinese goods and drew retaliatory tariffs of 15% on U.S. farm goods from China. Additionally, the U.S. accuses China of doing too little to stop the export of precursor materials for fentanyl, a highly potent opiate blamed for tens of thousands of deaths in the U.S.

In response, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi earlier this month accused Washington of “meeting good with evil” and said China will continue to retaliate for the United States’ “arbitrary tariffs."

Beijing also responded with a report detailing its efforts to control the illegal trade in fentanyl, specifically the ingredients for the opioid that are made in China.

The report said that China and the U.S. have held multiple high-level meetings since early last year to promote cooperation, and that its Narcotics Control Bureau holds regular exchanges with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

China is committed to cooperation, the report said, “but firmly opposes the U.S. imposition of unlawful sanctions and unreasonable pressure on China on the pretext of responding to fentanyl-related issues.”

Daines arrived in Beijing on Thursday and exchanged views with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu on bilateral relations and issues of mutual concern on the second day. His trip to the Chinese capital followed a visit to Vietnam where he met top leaders.

U.S. Senator Steve Daines, center, looks at Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, left before their meeting held in the Xinjiang Room at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Saturday, March 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, Pool)

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, second right, holds talks with U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, second from left, before a meeting held at the Xinjiang Room at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Saturday, March 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, Pool)

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, right, shows the way for U.S. Sen. Steve Daines before a meeting held in the Xinjiang Room at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Saturday, March 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, Pool)

Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, right, shakes hands with U.S. Senator Steve Daines before a meeting held in the Xinjiang Room at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, Saturday, March 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, Pool)