The Highly Anticipated Executive Order On Elimination of the U.S. Department of Education On President Trump’s Official Calendar For This Afternoon
Overview
Since President Trump took office on January 20th CSPEN has been tracking and reporting on the plethora of Executive Orders related to higher education policy which have been issued, and steadfastly shared our anticipation of a pending Executive Order which would call of the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education. Today is the day.
As noted on President Trump’s official schedule posted early this morning, this afternoon at 4 PM ET, President Trump, in front of a group of Governors and other guests, will host an “Education Event” and sign an Executive Order (EO) which calls upon Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities.
While the official EO has not been made public, an earlier version of the anticipated declaration focused almost exclusively on the failures of the U.S. Department of Education at the elementary and secondary education level, targeting the lack of improvement in students reading and mathematics scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress assessment and the most recent data indicating that 70 percent of 8th graders were below proficient in reading, and 72 percent were below proficient in math. Concluding that oversight of American education through Federal oversight has failed and that the Department of Education’s main functions should be returned to the States.
With respect to higher education the prior draft provided little to no details, but based upon public comments made throughout the campaign, various policy proposals circulated on how the Department’s roles and responsibilities could be allocated to other existing cabinet level agencies, and many recent media reports the assertions are that various aspects related to higher education could be doled out to the Departments of the Treasury, Commerce, and/or the Small Business Administration.
What’s Next
CSPEN will continue to monitor very closely the ongoing reports of the imminent release of the EO, will immediately notify the community upon its release, and provide as much information as possible both prior to and immediately following this afternoon’s Education Event and EO signing.
