Published by JNS on 03/20/2025 (March 20, 2025 / JNS) U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to begin eliminating the U.S. Department of Education on Thursday in the administration’s latest effort to slash the size of government. Trump announced that half of the employees of the 4,200-person department had accepted buyouts to leave their jobs and that he believes that federal expenditures on education could also be reduced by half. “We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs,” Trump said. Created by a law signed by former President Jimmy Carter in 1979, the Department of Education was appropriated more than $240 billion in 2024 and administers billions of dollars for student aid and other programs. It also holds approximately $1.6 trillion in student loan debt, per Trump’s order. The text of the executive order calls on Linda McMahon, the U.S. education secretary, 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 continuing to fund “services, programs and benefits on which Americans rely.” Surrounded by 14 children, one of whom was wearing a yarmulke, seated at school desks, Trump joked about putting one of his own cabinet secretaries out of the job. “Hopefully she will be our last secretary of education,” Trump said. “We’re going to find something else for you, Linda.” Formally abolishing and shutting down the department entirely would require an act of Congress. Trump said that despite his intent to eliminate the department, he also aimed to keep its “useful functions.” “Pell Grants, supposed to be a very good program. Title I funding and resources for children with special disabilities and special needs. They are going to be preserved in full and redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them,” Trump said. Pell Grants subsidize the tuition of college students with exceptional financial need, while Title I grants distribute funds to schools for children from low-income families. One function that Trump did not mention is the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which has been at the forefront of efforts by Jewish groups and students to combat antisemitism on campus. Kenneth Marcus, chairman and CEO of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and a former head of the office during the first Trump administration, told JNS that a leaner Education Department will still be capable of fighting Jew-hatred. “Even with a reduced footprint, the U.S. Department of Education is clearly capable of handling antisemitism more effectively than it has in the past,” Marcus said. “This administration has the will and the resources to expand their work into institutions that they had not mentioned before,” Marcus told JNS. “Their recent actions at Columbia demonstrate that they are willing and able to hit harder and faster than ever before when it comes to serious cases.” Many Republicans have long argued that the Department of Education is unnecessary and misleadingly named because, they say, its primary role is to redistribute money to the states with added strings attached. “The Department of Education is not a bank, and it must return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve America’s students,” Trump’s order states. “Ultimately, the Department of Education’s main functions can, and should, be returned to the States.” One option for the Office of Civil Rights would be to fold its enforcement powers against schools and universities into another department, like the Department of Justice.Marcus told JNS that the Trump administration has indicated that it intends to fight Jew-hatred regardless of where its authority to resolve civil rights complaints ultimately lies. “To the extent that the Office for Civil Rights is moved to the Department of Justice, we will see the administration continue an approach that has been much apparent lately,” he said. “They will be able to have greater impact by taking stronger action against recalcitrant institutions, often using a whole-of-government approach to force colleges to comply with the rights of Jewish students.” Democrats reacted to the executive order signing on Thursday with fury and threats of litigation. “The Trump administration is determined to take a chainsaw to public education in America,” stated House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). “We will stop this malignant Republican scheme in the House of Representatives and in the courts.” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers union, and Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, likewise said that they would sue the administration over the action.