White House: President Trump to Sign Order Shutting Down Department of Education

US President Donald Trump is reportedly set to sign an executive order on Thursday to “close the Education Department,” according to a fact sheet released by the White House.

Trump will hold an event at the White House to sign the order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

According to the administration’s own figures, Trump inherited an Education Department with 4,133 employees. Since then, nearly 600 workers have voluntarily left through resignations or retirements.

Last week, an additional 1,300 employees were informed that they would be losing their jobs due to a reduction-in-force, leaving the department with just 2,183 staff—about half its previous size.

The department was originally established in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter after bipartisan approval of the Department of Education Organization Act.

McMahon has recently taken significant steps to downsize the department, cutting its workforce by half. She described these job reductions as the initial phase in the process of dismantling the agency.

“That was the president’s mandate,” McMahon said last week in an interview with Fox News. “His directive to me, clearly, is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we’ll have to work with Congress, you know, to get that accomplished.”

McMahon also pledged during her Senate confirmation hearing to collaborate with Congress in advancing Trump’s plan to dismantle the Education Department. In an email to employees earlier this month, she signaled that significant changes were on the horizon.

“Our job is to respect the will of the American people and the President they elected, who has tasked us with accomplishing the elimination of bureaucratic bloat here at the Department of Education—a momentous final mission—quickly and responsibly,” she wrote, according to a copy obtained by NBC News.

The Senate confirmed McMahon in a 51-45 vote. No Democrat voted for her.