Washington (EFE).- United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed to dismantle the Department of Education, reducing its functions to the bare minimum in line with his campaign promise to shrink the federal government and return education authority to the states.
The White House confirmed that the Department of Education, which cannot be shut down without congressional approval, will retain core competencies, such as istering student aid, grants, or loans.
Trump said the executive order would “begin eliminating the federal Department of Education once and for all.”
The US leader signed the decree at the White House surrounded by over a dozen students seated at school desks, invited to an event that also included Republican governors such as Ron DeSantis (Florida), Jeff Landry (Louisiana), Bill Lee (Tennessee) or Kim Reynolds (Iowa), or Congressman, also a Republican, Rick Allen.
Trump spoke of 3 trillion dollars spent over 45 years and the worsening performance of US students on standardized tests, especially in math and reading, adding that the US is the developed country that has “spend more money per pupil” in recent decades, yet national academic standards have fallen.
He also said that for children with special needs and disabilities and Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which governs grants for children from low-income families, would be preserved. However, they would be “redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them.”
Although the possibility of Congress ing a definitive shutdown of the department is considered unlikely due to Democrats improbable , Trump, who has suggested that he can get enough votes for the initiative in the legislature, said again on Thursday that he plans to shut it down definitely.
On Thursday, the US president introduced Linda McMahon, head of the department, as he signed the executive order and said that “hopefully she will be our last Secretary of Education.”
“We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs,” Trump said. EFE
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