President Donald Trump signs an executive order calling for the elimination of the U.S. Education Department

By The Associated Press
Updated: March 20, 2025 - 9:48 PM
Published: March 20, 2025 - 8:39 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signs an executive order calling for the elimination of the U.S. Education Department.

Flanked by children seated at school desks, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday aiming to eliminate the U.S. Education Department, advancing a campaign promise to eliminate an agency that’s been a longtime target of conservatives. Trump said the agency will maintain control of federal student loans and Pell grants.

Trump has derided the department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. Completing its dismantling is most likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979.