Trump is preparing order to dismantle the Education Department as Musk’s DOGE probes data

President Donald Trump is preparing an executive order aimed at eventually closing the Education Department and, in the short term, dismantling it from within, according to three people briefed on its contents.

The draft order acknowledges that only Congress can shut down the department and instead directs the agency to begin to diminish itself, these people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal issues.

That work is underway already. The new administration has been trying to reduce the workforce by putting scores of employees on administrative leave and pressuring staff to voluntarily quit.

And roughly 20 people with Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” known as DOGE, have begun working inside the Education Department, looking to cut spending and staff, according to three people familiar with the situation and records obtained by The Washington Post.

At least some of DOGE staffers have gained access to multiple, sensitive internal systems, the people said, including a financial aid dataset that contains the personal information for millions of students enrolled in the federal student aid program.

The DOGE probe, which began late last week, is a prelude to a more dramatic effort to make good on one of Trump’s campaign promises: eliminating the Education Department altogether.

A White House official confirmed the White House is preparing for executive action later this month that will fulfill Trump’s campaign pledge to defund the department.

Some Republicans have argued it would be better to wait until after Trump’s choice for education secretary, Linda McMahon, appears before the Senate for her confirmation hearing. Scheduling has been held up as the government ethics office reviews her paperwork, a Senate aide said.

The expected executive order would not shut down the agency, as there is widespread agreement in both parties that doing so would require congressional action, the people familiar said. The Education Department was created by Congress, and only Congress can eliminate it.

Such congressional action is unlikely, people in both parties say. Legislation would require a supermajority of 60 votes in the Senate, meaning at least seven Democrats would need to support the plan, which observers say is inconceivable.

A 2023 vote in the House to abolish the department, considered as an amendment to a parents’ rights bill, garnered 161 yes votes, but 60 Republicans joined every Democrat in voting no. The bill was defeated.

“I would not hold my breath that (closing the department) would ultimately become law,” Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Michigan), chairman of the House Education Committee, said in an interview last month. He said he supports closing the agency but that such a plan does not have sufficient support in the Senate, so such legislation would not be his “highest priority” absent a plan from Trump to move a bill forward.

“So in the meantime,” Walberg said, “my efforts would be to find any means by which we may de-power the Department of Education.”

The order is expected to direct the Education Department to develop a legislative plan to present to Congress. But it also will instruct the department to come up with a plan to diminish its staff and functions.

It was unclear how detailed the order will be, but people briefed and others who follow the Education Department closely said they expect the agency will try to move various functions to other federal departments. Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for a second Trump term, detailed where different pieces of the department might land if it were closed.

For instance, Project 2025 recommended that the student loan program move to the Treasury Department and civil rights enforcement shift to the Justice Department.

But even those moves would require congressional action, experts said. The 1979 law that established the department specifies that the agency “shall” include many of its major responsibilities, including an Office for Civil Rights and an Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.

A separate statute, the Higher Education Act, specifies that the federal student aid office be housed in the Education Department. There has been some bipartisan interest in moving some of these functions out of the department in the past, but it’s unclear if Democrats would go along in this environment.

Trump and his team probably understand they will not be successful in tearing the Education Department to pieces by executive order, said Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank. But he said the move will please Trump’s base and test the limits of presidential power.

“What will be interesting is if he orders parts of the department to be moved to other agencies, in violation of the statutes,” Petrilli said. “Then that’ll be a test, and we’ll see what happens in the courts.”

Already, the National Student Legal Defense Network, an advocacy group, is exploring legal challenges to any effort to dismantle the agency.

“Effectively shutting down the Department of Education through Executive Order or mass firings is a recipe for chaos that will disrupt the lives of students across the country,” said Aaron Ament, a former Obama administration official who is president of the group. “Trying to do so without Congress is not only short-sighted but illegal and unconstitutional.”

Still, Petrilli pointed to the ongoing saga at USAID, which Trump - working through Musk - effectively closed and merged with the State Department over the weekend.

“He can’t do this on his own. He can’t actually dismantle the Department of Education,” Petrilli said. “But boy, everything feels up in the air right now. … It’s been a disorienting couple of days, so who knows?”

Closing the department has been an off-and-on Republican goal since it was created in 1979. During his campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to “return” responsibility for education to the states, a misleading sentiment echoed by many other GOP candidates. (States and school districts, not the federal government, operate public schools.)

The department administers federal grant programs, including the $18.4 billion Title I program that provides supplemental funding to high-poverty K-12 schools, as well as the $15.5 billion program that helps cover the cost of education for students with disabilities. The department also oversees the $1.6 trillion federal student loan program and sets rules for what colleges must do to participate.

And the agency is charged with enforcing civil rights laws that bar discrimination in federally funded schools on the basis of race, sex and other factors. Executive orders signed after Trump took office suggest the department will use its authority to deny federal funding to schools that teach certain things about race and gender. Another executive order banning transgender girls and women from competing on women’s sports teams is expected as soon as this week.

Americans have mixed and partisan views of the Education Department, according to a 2024 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. It found that 44% had favorable views of the agency and 45% had unfavorable views. But among Republicans and those who lean Republican, 64% viewed the agency unfavorably, compared with 26% of Democrats and those who lean Democratic.

Moves to shutter the agency are certain to draw widespread opposition.

“Parents aren’t asking for more chaos,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union. “We’re demanding leaders who strengthen schools, protect our economy and stop treating our children’s futures like props in a political performance.”

Donald Kettl, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, questioned whether congressional Republicans will expend the political capital to unwind the agency when they are tasked with carrying out so many other aspects of Trump’s agenda, particularly extending his 2017 tax cuts.

Breaking up the Education Department would offer little savings to offset the tax cuts, making the effort largely meaningless, he said.

“Is the (House) speaker willing to invest political capital to not save any money, to simply shift the boxes around and have very little to show for it, except for saying the department was abolished?” Kettl said.

Donald K. Sherman, executive director and chief counsel for legal advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Trump could weaken the department without moving a single function. Pushing senior staffers out, gutting budgets and firing the department’s inspector general, he said, could make the agency a shell of its former self.

“Trump has done a lot already to weaken the department,” Sherman said. “People are demoralized. They are being driven out with the end goal of destroying a critical arm of the government.”

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Matt Viser and Alice Crites contributed to this report.