Trump To Sign Order Shutting Down Education Department

U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Thursday that aims to shut down the Department of Education. This is a long-anticipated executive order. This is an act based on a key campaign pledge, as per reports.

Even before signing, the order was challenged by a group of Democratic state attorneys general. The group filed a lawsuit where it sought to block Trump from dismantling the department. The lawsuit also aims at halting the layoffs of nearly half of its staff announced last week.

The expected executive order has been opposed from many corners. Leading civil rights group the NAACP termed the order as unconstitutional.

"This is a dark day for the millions of American children who depend on federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor and rural communities with parents who voted for Trump," NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement.

Right after rising to power, Trump coupled with his billionaire adviser Elon Musk attempted to shut down government programs and institutions, for example, the U.S. Agency for International Development without congressional approval. However,  if the Department of Education is abolished, then it would be Trump's first step in shutting down a cabinet-level agency.

Trump has termed earlier the Department of Education as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. However, finalizing its abolition is not easy without the support of Congress, which created the department in 1979. 

Trump's Republican party hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate. However, legislation like abolishing a cabinet-level agency would need 60 votes.

Senate Democrats have given no sign they would support abolishing the Education Department.

“Trump and Musk are taking a wrecking ball to the Department of Education and firing half its staff," Democratic Senator Patty Murray was quoted in media to have said in a statement.

The order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to "take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure (of) the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely."