Trump to sign order to shut down Department of Education

US President Donald Trump will sign a long-anticipated executive order on Thursday that aims to shut down the Department of Education, acting on a key campaign pledge, according to a White House summary seen by Reuters.

Even before it was signed, the order was being challenged by a group of Democratic state attorneys general, who filed a lawsuit seeking to block Trump from dismantling the department and halt the layoffs of nearly half of its staff announced last week.

The NAACP, a leading civil rights group, also blasted the expected order as unconstitutional.

"This is a dark day for the millions of American children who depend on federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor and rural communities with parents who voted for Trump," NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement.

Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk have attempted to shut down government programs and institutions such as the U.S. Agency for International Development without congressional approval, but abolishing the Department of Education would be Trump's first bid to shut down a cabinet-level agency.

Trump cannot shutter the agency without congressional legislation, which could prove difficult. Trump's Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, but major legislation, such as a bill eliminating a cabinet-level agency, would need 60 votes and thus the support of seven Democrats to pass.

Senate Democrats have given no sign they would support abolishing the Education Department.

“Trump and Musk are taking a wrecking ball to the Department of Education and firing half its staff," Democratic Senator Patty Murray said in a statement, vowing to fight what she called "Trump and Musk's slash and burn campaign."

The order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to "take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure (of) 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."

It mandates that any programs or activities receiving remaining Department of Education funds should not "advance DEI or gender ideology," according to the White House summary.

Trump has repeatedly called for eliminating the department, calling it "a big con job." He proposed shuttering it in his first term as president, but Congress did not act.

Last month Trump said he wanted the department to be closed immediately, but acknowledged he would need buy-ins from Congress and teachers' unions.