In the News

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order, dismantling the Department of Education.

The Trump Administration has signed an executive order shuttering the Department of Education even after 21 Democratic Attorneys General filed a lawsuit last week deeming the elimination of the department unlawful.

The Department of Education was established by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and is one of the smallest cabinet-level departments, only representing 4% of the U.S. budget.

Under the Trump Administration, the education authority is set to return to the individual states. Congressman Neal told 22News his other worry about the dismantling of the Department of Education is disability rights, saying it will be harder to determine what the term disabilities mean in learning initiatives if each state can have different qualifications.

“If we are going to say that 50 states are going to have 50 different standards for how we measure educational achievements in America, that is a mistake,” he says.

To formally close the Department of Education, Congress will need to be involved, but with an executive order, the Trump Administration will effectively make it nearly impossible for employees to do their work, like what happened to the USAID.