[VT Washington, D.C. ]March 20, 2025 – President Donald Trump signed an executive order on March 20, 2025, titled “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities.” The order aims to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to states and local communities.
The executive order states that the “experiment of controlling American education through Federal programs and dollars — and the unaccountable bureaucracy those programs and dollars support — has plainly failed our children, our teachers, and our families.” Trump emphasized that American reading and math scores are near historical lows, citing the National Assessment of Educational Progress which showed that 70 percent of 8th graders were below proficient in reading, and 72 percent were below proficient in math.
The order directs the Secretary of Education to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
Additionally, the order instructs the Secretary to ensure that the allocation of any federal education funds complies with federal law and administration policy, including terminating what it describes as “illegal discrimination obscured under the label ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion'” or similar terms and programs promoting gender ideology.
The Department of Education, established in 1979 during the Carter administration, is one of the newest cabinet-level departments in the U.S. government. The executive order comes as the Trump administration implements a series of reforms aimed at reducing the size of federal agencies and delegating more power to state governments.
