BREAKING: Trump signs executive order to dismantle the Department of Education

Trump said ahead of the signing, "We're going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs," adding that "Probably the cost will be half, and the education will be maybe many, many times better."

Trump said that when President Jimmy Carter signed the law establishing the Department of Education in 1979, "it was opposed by members of his own cabinet, as well as the American Federation of Teachers, the New York Times Editorial Board, and the Famed Democrat Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan."

"History has proven them right, absolutely right. After 45 years, the United States spends more money on education by far than any other country and spends, likewise, by far, more money per pupil than any other country. And it’s not even close. But yet, we rank near the bottom of the list in terms of success."

He noted that 70 percent of eighth graders "are not proficient in either reading or in math," and 40 percent of fourth graders "lack basic reading skills," and that in Baltimore, "40 percent of the high schools have zero students who can do basic mathematics."

"Despite these breathtaking failures, the department’s discretionary budget has exploded by 600 percent in a very short period of time and employs bureaucrats in buildings all over Washington, DC, and as a former real estate person, I will tell you, I ride through the streets of Washington and it says Department of Education, Department of Education. I said, how do you fill those buildings? It’s crazy."

Trump said that under Thursday’s action, Department functions such as Pell grants, Title I funding, and resources for special needs and disabled students would be "preserved in full and redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them."

"But beyond these core necessities," Trump later added, "my administration will take lawful steps to shut down the department. We’re going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible. It’s doing us no good. We want to return our students to the states where just some of the governors here are so happy about this, they want education to come back to them, to come back to the States, and they're going to do a phenomenal job."

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