Trump to order a plan to shut down the US Education Department

President Donald Trump will sign a long-awaited executive order on Thursday aimed at closing the Department of Education, fulfilling a key campaign promise.

It turns out that even before it was signed, the order had been challenged by a group of Democratic state attorneys general.

The attorneys general are said to have filed a lawsuit to prevent Trump from dismantling the department and halting the layoffs of nearly half of its staff announced last week.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, a leading civil rights group, also sharply criticized the proposed order as unconstitutional.

“This is a dark day for 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 advisor Elon Musk have reportedly sought to shut down government programs and institutions like the U.S. Agency for International Development without congressional approval, but abolishing the Department of Education would be Trump’s first attempt to close a Cabinet-level agency.

It has also been learned that Trump cannot shut down 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 then the support of seven Democrats to pass.

Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have shown no signs they will support abolishing the Department of Education.

In a statement, Democratic Senator Patty Murray vowed to fight what she called Trump and Musk’s “slash and burn” campaign.

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“Trump and Musk are demolishing the Department of Education and laying off half its staff,” she said.

The order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return educational authority to the states, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of the services, programs, and benefits on which Americans depend.

According to the White House summary, the order also states that any program or activity receiving the remaining Department of Education funds must not promote DEI or gender ideology.

Trump has repeatedly called for the department’s elimination, calling it a huge scam.

He proposed closing it during his first term as president, but Congress failed to act.

Last month, Trump said he wanted to close the department immediately, but acknowledged that he would need buy-in from Congress and teachers’ unions.