OAN Staff James Meyers and Chloe Hauxwell
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Update 11:49 AM: The White House has denied reports that President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order abolishing the Department of Education.
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Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt took to X on Thursday, calling the story “more fake news!”
She said Trump is not signing an order on the Education Department on Thursday.
This is in response to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
The article in question suggests that the 47th president was going to direct Secretary Linda McMahon to ‘take all necessary steps’ to facilitate the department’s closure.
Only Congress can shutter a federal agency.
Republicans only hold 53 seats in the upper chamber. They would need seven Democrats to get on board.
8:20 AM: A new report indicates that President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order to get rid of the Department of Education.
The report claims that Trump will use his executive powers to direct 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,” according to the Wall Street Journal, which viewed the drafted order.
“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,” reads the draft order, which was labeled “pre-decisional.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, the order, which supports Trump’s pledge to have the federal agency shuttered, has been in play since he transitioned back into the White House.
According to the publication, the draft order reads: “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.”
McMahon, who was confirmed to lead the agency on Monday, sent a company-wide email to staff discussing her mission to dismantle the agency as a whole, describing it as a “momentous final mission.”
She said she had been “tasked… with accomplishing the elimination of the bureaucratic bloat here at the Education Department – a momentous final mission – quickly and responsibly.”
The 47th president previously said last month that he hoped his nominee would “put herself out of a job.”
During his 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly told voters that he wanted to get back into the White House to eliminate the federal department.
“We will drain the government education swamp and stop the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s youth with all sorts of things that you don’t want to have our youth hearing,” he said at a September rally in Wisconsin.
When he nominated McMahon to lead the department last November, he indicated that she would be given orders to give states a larger role in education policy.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have also pointed out poor test scores across the country as proof that the Department of Education, which spent close to $268 billion last year, needs a major change with McMahon running it.
Currently, the U.S. ranks 20th out of 41 countries in education, according to an analysis by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Since the start of the COVID pandemic, American student’s test scores have fallen dramatically, with reading proficiency for eighth-graders hitting its lowest level in the 32 years the government has compiled such data.
During her confirmation hearing, she told members of the Senate HELP committee that the department’s elimination “certainly does require congressional action” but there are plans to get buy-in from Republican lawmakers.
“We’d like to make sure that we are presenting a plan that I think our senators could get on board with, and our Congress could get on board with, that would have a better-functioning Department of Education,” she said.
Additionally, major programs that include Title I funding for low-income institutions, as well as Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Pell Grants, will remain in place, McMahon promised.
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