The order could come as soon as Thursday, reports The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter. More recently, however, ABC News quotes the White House press secretary describing such a report as "fake news" and saying Trump isn't signing it. According to that ABC report, an unidentified "education leader" vows a "massive legal fight" awaits the White House if the expected EO is signed.
Trump can't do it unilaterally
Should such an order come to pass, though, it is just one more example of governance that can’t occur with the stroke of the president’s pen, attorney and podcast host Ron Coleman said on American Family Radio Thursday.
The Department was created under President Jimmy Carter’s administration in 1979 when it split the Department of Health, Education and Welfare into the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. Critics of that move say the return on investment has been a waste and that states need more say in matters of education.
According to the most recent worldwide data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the U.S. ranked sixth in reading, 13th in science and 28th in math.
Trump has repeatedly called the DOE a “big con job.”
The EO would instruct new Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department based on the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.
It’s that language – “maximum extent” – that could hint at Trump’s intentions, a possible wrecking ball approach to a wart he knows only Congress – which created the Department – can remove.
“I don’t see how the executive [branch] can abolish it other than by hamstringing it,” Coleman told show host Jenna Ellis. “So, what’s the end game, the possible method behind the madness? I think what the President’s trying to do here is serve up a very slow pitch right down the middle for the Supreme Court to result in some non-incrementalist enunciation of just what the executive can and cannot do. It would be helpful to clarify that.”
Backup plans for shutting down DOE
That type of clarity – if it weakens the executive branch on this issue – could lead to a second option for Trump, Coleman said. “The other possibility is this gives Trump the ability to turn to [House Speaker] Mike Johnson and say, ‘Get it done. We ran on this, get it done.’”
Should Congress be unable to get it done that could light the fuse on big mid-term election results for Republicans, Ellis pointed out.
Whatever the next moves, Trump has a solid department head to help in the process, says Jonathan Butcher, a research fellow in education with The Heritage Foundation. Trump has joked that he wants McMahon to work herself out of a job.
Butcher told AFN that McMahon’s comments in Senate confirmation hearings showed she is interested in closing the Department of Education. He contends she will be a secretary who is “about removing regulations around Education, shrinking the size of government and acting on behalf of parents, allowing parents to make more decisions and more choices.”
A lot remains unknown about the actual authority of the administration on this issue, but there are things that can be done. Butcher says the White House can change certain jobs within the Department to make it easier for them to be phased out. There are also programs the executive branch can unilaterally end.
“Secretary McMahon will need to be the one to carry those out,” Butcher added.
NAACP president Derrick Johnson, in an Axios report, said McMahon’s confirmation “marks another dark day in America – not just for our government but for our kids.”
But Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) said on Washington Watch this week that education, even if it looks different, will be strong under the leadership of McMahon and Trump.
“We’re going to see what it looks like to respect authority, to respect others’ properties, and also respect each other in terms of this divisiveness that’s been running rampant for quite a while," the GOP congressman told show host Jody Hice. "We’ve been lacking the type of leadership that will hold people accountable.”
Articulating Trump’s position
If Congress seriously considers abolishing the Department, it will be McMahon who argues Trump’s case, describes the future of the Office of Civil Rights, and explains why states should have more control over what’s taught in their schools.
“[She will talk about] what it’s going to look like as things are closed and moved to other departments," Butcher predicted. "She really has a very key position, and she’s in a very important spot to be able to carry out a centerpiece of the conservative vision for education in the United States – which is returning it to the states … and families,” he concluded.
