The Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building is located at 400 Maryland Ave. S.W. in Washington.
Credit: Ethan Young1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump signed an executive order to eliminate the Department of Education on Thursday.
The March 20 federal action will attempt to shut down the department, which manages federal student loans through its Office of Federal Student Aid and funds Penn through grants. The order represented the culmination of Trump’s promises to target the department during his second presidential term, including a recently announced 50% reduction to the DOE’s workforce that was set to begin on March 21.
“Today, we take a very historic action that was 45 years in the making. In a few moments, I will sign an executive order to begin eliminating the federal Department of Education once and for all,” Trump said at the signing ceremony. “We have to get our children educated. We’re not doing well with the world of education in this country, and we haven’t for a long time.”
He added that his administration will take “all lawful steps” to shut down the department “as quickly as possible.”
According to a White House fact sheet, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon will be directed to “return education authority to the States,” while adding that the federal government will continue to “ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
At a press conference hours before Trump was scheduled to sign the order, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the Trump administration would only be “greatly reducing the scale and size of the department” rather than shutting it down completely. She reiterated that the “critical functions” of the DOE would continue under the reduced version.
The agency cannot be completely abolished unless Congress enacts legislation modifying the laws that created the department.
“Taxpayers will no longer be burdened with tens of billions of dollars wasted,” the fact sheet read, claiming that student performance has not increased proportional to funding for the department.
According to an analysis by The Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn received $29,908,126.83 from the DOE during fiscal year 2024. At the time of publication, it remains unclear what will happen to funds previously allocated to Penn by the department during the current fiscal year.
In the fact sheet, the White House also stated that “progressive social experiments and obsolete programs” will be removed as the department is terminated. The White House has not made it clear which of the department’s responsibilities will be delegated to other federal agencies or eliminated altogether.
“Programs or activities receiving any remaining Department of Education funds will not advance DEI or gender ideology,” the fact sheet read.
On Feb. 14, the department published a letter threatening to withhold funding from schools and universities that did not eliminate their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Penn responded to the federal action by stripping DEI policies, programs, and initiatives across its four undergraduate and 12 graduate schools.
The White House announced that it would freeze $175 million in federal funding received by Penn on March 20 in a move that rebuked Penn for allowing 2022 Engineering graduate and transgender woman Lia Thomas to compete for Penn’s women’s swimming and diving team.
Amid speculation in February of a possible shutdown of the DOE, Graduate School of Education senior fellow Alan Ruby told the DP that such an action by the Trump administration would “be claimed as a victory, even if all the programs and grants continue.”
In a March 3 statement, McMahon wrote that education “ought not to be corrupted by political ideologies, special interests, and unjust discrimination.”
“Removing red tape and bureaucratic barriers will empower parents to make the best educational choices for their children,” McMahon wrote. “An effective transfer of educational oversight to the states will mean more autonomy for local communities.”
Upon McMahon’s nomination, Trump said that he wanted her to “put herself out of a job.”
“A DOE exists to support the poorest students across our country. Eliminating it will be disruptive and almost certainly end up impeding or ending those services,” GSE professor and Board of Advisors Chair of Education Matthew Hartley wrote in a statement to the DP. “Over time that will have a detrimental impact on higher education since we look to K-12 students for the students who eventually attend our institutions.”
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