On Thursday, March 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order giving Education Secretary Linda McMahon the go ahead to begin breaking down the Department of Education. The department won’t be eliminated in its entirety, however. If Trump and McMahon do not receive push back, the department will be reduced to near nothing. It will be minimized so that things such as student loans and collegiate financial aid can still be run through it. The executive order will also not affect existing educational needs for disabled students, nor Title I funding, which helps fund schools with high amounts of low-income students and families.

However, the executive order cannot completely close the department without approval from Congress. Approval seems unlikely though, as according to a Quinnipiac University poll, 98 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of independents oppose the plan, while 67 percent of Republicans support it. Although Republicans hold the majority in the Senate, it is only by a slim difference of five.

With or without approval, Trump and McMahon will make sure the Department of Education becomes weak and ineffective. Steps have already been taken to ensure that, as in the past weeks, the department’s workforce has been cut almost in half.

The purpose of closing the Department of Education is to allow the states individual freedoms to decide for themselves what the department currently governs. Every U.S. state already has the freedom to determine their own school districts and requirements for enrollment and graduation. They can also establish any school or college and develop the curriculum for the state’s schools to follow. The idea of shutting the department down comes from the belief that it’s redundant and that the federal government has too much power over the states regarding education.

The federal Department of Education was established in 1979 by Democratic President Jimmy Carter. It already existed beforehand, but it had not yet become a Cabinet-level agency for the federal government. The department has been on the Conservative chopping block since its creation, with Republican President Ronald Reagan swearing to shut it down only a year after it had opened.

Sophomore Cameron Whitaker said, “As a student, it sounds weird. What’s going to happen to us? Public schools are already underfunded and lacking government intervention as it is.”

Those critical of the department may think that it’s a waste of government money, as states already govern their own educations. However, it is one of the smallest Cabinet agencies. Last year, only four percent of the U.S. federal budget was spent by the Department of Education.

Questions have been raised if the department is being targeted because of its Office of Civil Rights, which enforces laws that prevent discrimination in schools. Its shutdown is reminiscent of Executive Order 1451, an order signed by Trump which eliminates diversity, equity and inclusion frameworks that strive to ensure opportunities are provided to lesser represented groups of people.

Junior Jackie Knight said, “DEI’s shutdown has caused so many struggles for the ones who should be honored, such as military veterans who were once protected under the government. It hurts everyone involved to shut down DEI, especially because of the well-known discrimination caused for any minority group socially.”