President Donald Trump signed an order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education with the goal of its eventual closure.

Trump's vision requires an act from Congress, which created the department in 1979.

Trump's March 20 order states: "The Secretary of Education shall, to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, 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 ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely."

It didn't provide details about how to disassemble and close the agency, though Trump rolled out more specifics at a briefing the next day.

Trump said March 21 that student loan oversight will move to the U.S. Small Business Administration, and programs related to disabilities will move to the Health and Human Services Department. 

Closing the Education Department has been Trump's goal since his 2016 presidential campaign. In his 2024 bid, he promised "to end education coming out of Washington, D.C. We're going to close it up – all those buildings all over the place and people that in many cases hate our children. We're going to send it all back to the states."

Public schools, with some exceptions, already receive the majority of their funding from local and state governments. The federal department provides about 10% of K-12 school funding. 

Trump acknowledged Congress' power in his March 20 remarks, saying "the Democrats know it's right, and I hope they're going to be voting for it."

But it's not a done deal among Republicans, either. Efforts to close the department failed in 2023 and 2024, and a 2025 resolution proposed by U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., calling for its Dec. 31, 2026, termination, has 32 cosponsors, all Republicans. 

Public opinion polls show why Congress might be reluctant to act against most voters' wishes:

• A March Economist/YouGov poll found 30% of respondents thought the Education Department should be reduced or eliminated; the majority wanted it expanded or kept the same. 

• Quinnipiac University's February poll found 60% of voters opposed eliminating the department.

• A fall 2024 national poll done for All4Ed, a nonprofit advocacy organization, found that 58% of voters did not want the Education Department to close.

The promise is one of 75 Trump made in his 2024 campaign that PolitiFact is tracking on the MAGA-Meter. Over the next four years, we will periodically evaluate the new administration's progress on Trump's 2024 campaign promises, just as we did with Barack Obama, Trump during his first term and Joe Biden. 

Education experts said the Education Department order lacked details, raising questions about future services for students and public schools.

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So far, the Trump administration has weakened the department without shuttering it.

The Trump administration fired more than 1,300 employees in early March, and hundreds took buyouts. Combined, those measures reduced the workforce by about 50%. A coalition of 21 Democratic attorneys general sued the administration challenging the employee cuts.

The administration in February cut more than 200 Education Department contracts and grants, Chalkbeat reported.

The mass layoffs could cause huge disruptions to remaining services, despite Trump's order saying funding or services would not be disrupted, said Josh Cowen, Michigan State University professor and senior fellow at the Education Law Center, a nonprofit focused on equity for public school students.

"It's difficult to see how that promise will be kept given both the slashing of the department's staff and the track record at other agencies," Cowen said.

The department enforces laws that affect funding for special education and low-income students and oversees the federal student loan program.

"The department is basically a mega bank with a small policy shop attached," said Frederick M. Hess, an expert on education policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

Republicans want to take the pots of money the department spends on poor students, special education and school lunch (overseen by the Agriculture Department) and give them directly to states or school districts, with no federal education strings attached.

Many of the states that have the highest proportion of Title I funding are Republican-led, including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, home of House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Michael J. Petrilli, a Trump critic and president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, said Trump's move "was a big nothing burger."

"Congress sent most of the power back to the states 10 years ago when it enacted the Every Student Succeeds Act, repealing No Child Left Behind," he said. "Today's 'actions' will have little impact, for good or ill, on America's schools."

At PolitiFact, we rate campaign promises based on developments and outcomes, not intentions. 

Trump acknowledged that he can't shutter the department on his own, and in the past only a minority of Congress members have shown interest in closing it.

Meanwhile, Trump has significantly cut the department's employment and grants in his administration's first quarter. But significant hurdles remain to permanently close it.

For now, we rate this promise In the Works. 

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