BREAKING: President Trump expected to sign executive order to eliminate the Department of Education

President Trump is preparing to sign an executive order as early as Thursday that would initiate the process of dismantling the US Department of Education, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

A draft of the order reportedly instructs 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 move aligns with long-standing conservative efforts to shift education oversight to state and local governments.

The potential dissolution of the department is expected to spark significant debate among lawmakers, educators, and advocacy groups. More details on the administration’s plan are expected to emerge in the coming days.

“The experiment of controlling American education through Federal programs and dollars—and the unaccountable bureaucrats those programs and dollars support—has failed our children, our teachers, and our families,” the order reads.

McMahon had pledged to "send education back to the states." She could be the first agency nominee who was confirmed in order to dismantle her agency.

Per the WSJ, "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."

The Department of Education came into being under the Jimmy Carter administration in 1980. It's mission is to establish policy for, administer and coordinate federal assistance to education. "The Department's mission is to serve America's students-to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access," per the DOE overview. 

When Congress created the Department in 1979, it declared these purposes:

1. to strengthen the Federal commitment to ensuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual;
2. to supplement and complement the efforts of States, the local school systems and other instrumentalities of the States, the private sector, public and private educational institutions, public and private nonprofit educational research institutions, community-based organizations, parents, and students to improve the quality of education;
3. to encourage the increased involvement of the public, parents, and students in Federal education programs;
4. to promote improvements in the quality and usefulness of education through federally supported research, evaluation, and sharing of information;
5. to improve the coordination of Federal education programs;
6. to improve the management and efficiency of Federal education activities, especially with respect to the process, procedures, and administrative structures for the dispersal of Federal funds, as well as the reduction of unnecessary and duplicative burdens and constraints, including unnecessary paperwork, on the recipients of Federal funds; and
7. to increase the accountability of Federal education programs to the President, the Congress and the public. (Section 102, Public Law 96-88)

Prior to that, under President Andrew Jackson, a Department of Education was created primarily to collect statistics and information about how schools were doing. There was concern, however, that Jackson's DOE "would exercise too much control over local schools" and shortly thereafter, "the new Department was demoted to an Office of Education in 1868."

It was the space race and President Lyndon Johnson's "war on poverty" that led to an expansion of federal aid for education. "This expansion," the DOE notes, "continued in the 1970s with national efforts to help racial minorities, women, people with disabilities and non-English speaking students gain equal access to education. In October 1979, Congress passed the Department of Education Organization Act (Public Law 96-88). Created by combining offices from several federal agencies, the Department began operations in May 1980."