TRUMP SIGNS ORDER AIMED AT DISMANTLING US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION – Trump says “We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs”
Flanked by students and educators, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the federal Department of Education, making good on a longstanding campaign promise.
The order would leave school policy almost entirely in the hands of states and local boards, a prospect that alarms liberal education advocates.
The order will “begin to eliminate” the department, Trump said at a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House. Shuttering the department completely requires an act of Congress, and Trump lacks the votes for that.
“We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs,” Trump said.
The order follows the department’s announcement last week that it would lay off nearly half of its staff. It is the latest step by Trump, who has been in office some two months, to reshape the U.S. government and upend the federal bureaucracy.
