BBC News, Washington DC
Getty imagesPresident Donald Trump is expected to issue an executive decree requiring the closure of the Ministry of Education – a long -standing objective of the Conservatives.
Since the return of the Republican to the White House, the department has already announced its intention to reduce about half of its workforce.
Total closure would generally require an act of congress.
Created in 1979, the ministry oversees the financing of public schools, administers student loans and manages programs that help low -income students.
Trump and his allies accused the agency of “indoctrinating young people with racial, sexual and political inappropriate material”.
What is the department doing and not doing?
A false common idea is that the Ministry of Education operates American schools and establishes programs – this responsibility really belongs to local states and districts.
The agency oversees student loan programs and administers PELL grants that help low -income students attending university.
It also helps to finance programs to support disabled students and for students living in poverty.
And the ministry applies the civil rights law designed to prevent discrimination based on race or sex in schools funded by the federal government.
What is his budget and how many people work there?
The ministry’s allowance was 238 billion dollars (188 billion pounds sterling) during the year 2024 – less than 2% of the total federal budget.
The agency says it has about 4,400 employees, the smallest of all departments at the office.
Most public funding for American schools come from governments of states and local governments.
In 2024, the education data initiative estimated that the United States spends just over $ 857 billion in primary and secondary education – the equivalent of $ 17,280 per student.
Can Trump stop the department?
Alone, no.
Not only would Trump need the approval of the congress to get rid of the department, but he would probably need a supermajority in the American Senate – 60 senators out of 100.
Republicans have a majority of 53-47 in the Senate, they would therefore need at least seven democrats to vote to abolish the agency – a longhot political.
Even in the House of Representatives, Trump would find it difficult to obtain the necessary support.
A vote last year to abolish the Department of Education – which was attached as an amendment to another bill – failed to pass while 60 Republicans joined all the Democrats in the House to vote no.
Trump has moved to reduce other government services in recent weeks, despite questions about the legality of these movements.
A project of Trump’s order to dismantle the education department, obtained last month by the Washington Post, admitted that only Congress could get rid of the agency, but executive action could order the agency to start to meet.
Employees of the Department of Education are among those who are at the center of administration efforts to Reduce federal workforce.
Why do the Republicans want to abolish it?
The idea of eliminating the Department of Education has been launched by Republicans for almost as long as it has existed.
During the presidential campaign of Ronald Reagan in 1980, he pushed to be dismantled.
Republicans have historically pushed to centralize education policy, believing that it is preferable to leave the states and the individual localities.
More recently, they accused the Department of Education of having pushed what they describe as a political ideology “awake” to children, including on gender and race.
Trump’s allies also want to extend the choice of school, which would allow students and families to use public money to select private or religious alternatives to public schools.
The Conservatives argue that other functions of the Department of Education, such as the Loan Administration, should be processed instead by the US Treasury Department, and that civil rights offenses are the field of the Ministry of Justice.
