The government agency has failed the American people, the president has argued

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at dismantling the Department of Education, which he has accused of squandering taxpayer dollars and promoting “progressive social experiments.”

Set up in 1979, the department is tasked with overseeing education, issuing grants and student aid, as well as enforcing anti-discrimination policies at federally funded schools. Trump has long argued that it has become wasteful and politicized. 

On Thursday, the president instructed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the States and local communities.” 

According to the order, doing away with the department “would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them.”

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“Mathematics and reading scores are down in public schools, despite per-pupil spending having increased by more than 245% since the 1970s, indicating that more spending does not mean better education,” the White House said. It added that the taxpayer money would no longer be spent “on progressive social experiments and obsolete programs.”

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said that the department “will be much smaller than it is today” and will continue to administer student loans and federal Pell Grants. 

The order is part of a wider campaign to cut “wasteful spending” and bureaucracy led by Elon Musk’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE).

The Department of Education had around 4,200 employees as of last September, according to Time magazine. McMahon announced earlier this month that the department would be cutting nearly 50% of its workforce.