U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Thursday to close the education sector, according to a fact sheet provided by the White House.
Trump will hold an event at the White House to sign an order directed by Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to promote the closure of the Department of Education and return to education mandates while continuing to ensure which Americans who provide services, programs and benefits are relying on.”
According to the administration’s own figures, Trump inherited a department with 4,133 employees. Since then, nearly 600 workers have chosen to leave, resign or retire. Last week, 1,300 workers were told they would lose their jobs in part of their efforts to reduce their efforts. This left behind 2,183 employees in the department – about half of what it was a few weeks ago.
Jimmy Carter established the ministry in 1979 after Congress voted by bipartisanly to pass the Education Organization Act.
McMahon has recently greatly reduced the size of the education sector by cutting its workforce in half. She said the termination of work was the first step to shutting down the department.
“That’s the president’s mission,” McMahon said in an interview with Fox News last week. “Obviously, his instructions to me were to close the Department of Education and we knew we had to work with Congress to achieve that.”
McMahon also vowed to work with Congress at a Senate confirmation hearing to promote Trump’s plan to remove the department. She sent employees so much that major changes would occur in her email to employees this month.
“Our job is to respect the will of the American people and the will of their elected president, and her mission is to eliminate the bureaucratic inflation here (a major final task) at the Department of Education, and she effortlessly responsibly.”
The Senate confirmed McMahon with a 51-45 vote. No Democrats voted for her.
