This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that launched the cancellation of the Department of Education.
Critics of the move immediately promised court challenges, like the more than 100 other challenges that have been brought to mostly left-leaning judges trying to halt Trump's agenda to clean fraud, waste, and corruption out of the federal government spending.
A report at Fox News said Trump's signature fulfilled a campaign promise to return control of education policy to the 50 different state education departments.
Actually, local school districts are run by local school boards in conjunction with state standards and requirements, which was one of the reasons for dismantling the federal bureaucracy.
The order actually is expected to scale down federal operations significantly, but it would be up to Congress to actually end the department.
On the campaign trail, Trump expressed a plan to "stop the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America's youth." In fact, many of the federal programs do take the positions of far-left advocates which become policy and practice for states then.
Indoctrination into various ideologies, like "diversity, equity and inclusions" is the result.
On Thursday, Trump explained, "Everybody knows it's right, and we have to get our children educated. We're not doing well with the world of education in this country, and we haven't for a long time."
Actually, despite massive hikes in spending for schools, student test scores have been plunging.
Fox reported, "A White House fact sheet on the executive order said, the directive aims to 'turn over education to families instead of bureaucracies,' and instructs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to 'take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure 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.'"
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt explained Pell Grants and student loans still will be managed by the remaining department.
The report noted a Gallup Poll from last month confirmed "Americans' satisfaction with education has dropped significantly in the past decade. The poll found that only 24% of Americans are satisfied with the quality of education in the U.S. as of January 2025, in comparison to 37% in January 2017."
The bureaucracy was created in 1979.
Already, plans were announced to reduce the staffing in the ranks of the department by half, from 4,000 to about 2,000.
National Education Association President Becky Pringle claimed with the changes, college would become more costly for families and that students with disabilities would suffer.
