President Donald Trump on Tuesday confirmed reports that his administration is working toward gutting the Department of Education.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Monday that the White House was drafting an executive order to defund the department. Trump has already issued several education-related executive orders in the last week.
“I want her to put herself out of a job,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to his nominee to lead the agency, Linda McMahon.
“We’re ranked No. 1 in cost per pupil, so we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, and we’re ranked at the bottom of the list. We’re ranked very badly. And what I want to do is let the states run schools,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump cannot eliminate the agency on his own and would need congressional approval to do so. The president told reporters Tuesday that he would like to see that executive order come to fruition and would work with Congress and teachers’ unions to bring about his agenda.
Republicans have long sought to dismantle the Department of Education. Trump also expressed the desire to do so on the campaign trail.
Any moves in that direction will almost certainly receive a lot of pushback from education groups and Democrats.
“That’s going to impact children across this country in a negative way,” Sen. Mark Kelly told reporters. “I think every kid in my country has a right to get a strong public education, and this is an attack on our education system.”
Education groups have already expressed concerns about other measures Trump has supported, like tax credits to promote school choice, which they worry will shift funds and resources away from public schools in the nation’s most underserved communities.
“We need leaders and our leadership, both Democrats and Republicans, to step up and say, ‘This institution is too important to sell to the billionaire class,’” Vonne Martin, deputy chief of campaigns at Center for Popular Democracy, told NOTUS.
The news of Trump’s desire to unravel the agency comes before the Senate has even begun the confirmation process for McMahon. Confirmation procedures have yet to be scheduled because the Senate is waiting on her ethics paperwork, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Sen. Tim Kaine, who serves on the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, told NOTUS the news tees up the Senate for an even more fiery confirmation hearing.
“I will just say this — her hearing will be dramatically different if that’s the case,” he told NOTUS, ahead of Trump’s comments Tuesday. “A hearing for a nominee, if that in fact is a plan that is out there, is going to be extremely different.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who spoke at an education-related press conference with the Center for Popular Democracy on Tuesday, told NOTUS that McMahon’s selection was indicative of Trump’s plans for the agency.
“The fact that he wants somebody who has no background in education indicates that that’s their goal. If they were serious about education in America, they would nominate a serious head to lead the Department of Education,” he said.
Some Senate Republicans, on the other hand, are unfazed in the face of the Trump administration’s intentions.
“You wouldn’t notice if the Department of Education were gone,” Sen. Rand Paul told NOTUS, also citing poor testing scores and current levels of state and local funding for education. “I’d like to see more local funding and more local education, so I won’t miss it if it goes away.”
Trump had a roundtable meeting with education leaders on Friday in the wake of a new report from the Nation’s Report Card, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Trump has issued other education-related orders, including one promoting school choice and another “ending radical indoctrination,” policing what should be taught in schools and how.
Last week, Rep. Thomas Massie introduced legislation that would abolish the Department of Education. He’s not the first. This latest push comes at a time when Republicans are realizing the power that Trump is willing to attempt to exercise to get the ball moving on Republican priorities.
“He’s willing not just to nibble around the edges, but he’s got his garden shovel and he’s going straight to the root and tearing it out,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts told Sean Spicer. “If you miss the opportunity right now with unified government, with political will, with the president winning — in part, because he was so clear about what he wanted to do with education — then I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to do it again. And we won’t be able to reap the benefits of doing so this year.”
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Violet Jira is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Shifra Dayak, a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow, has contributed to this report.