US President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order on Thursday to dismantle the Department of Education. The draft of the order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to abolish the department.
The draft, which was accessed by The Wall Street Journal, instructs McMahon to take measures to facilitate the closure as per "the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law." WSJ reported that the executive order could come as soon as Thursday.
The order said the "experiment of controlling American education through Federal programs and dollars... has failed our children, our teachers and our families."
McMahon, who co-founder of the World Wrestling Entertainment, was confirmed as the education secretary by the Senate on Monday. Defending Trump's plan to abolish the agency, McMahon, 76, said she will "send education back to the states".
During his election campaign, Trump had repeatedly called the department of education a "big con job" and vowed to decentralise education and devolve the federal department's powers to the state governments.
The Department of Education was set up during the term of former president Jimmy Carter in 1979. The department covers around 1 lakh public schools and 34,000 private establishments. However, the funds from the federal agency is only 15 per cent and the remaining 85 per cent of public school funding comes from states and local governments.
The federal department provides grants to needy schools as well as oversees $1.6 trillion student loans.
However, unlike the shuttering of USAID, closing a cabinet-level agency like the Department of Agency cannot be done unilaterally. As per law, the department cannot be closed without the approval of the Congress. The order would seek Congress to pass a bill to dismantle the agency.