“It’s Doing Us No Good”: Trump Signs Executive Order to Shut Down U.S. Department of Education

Says federal control has failed American students, promises to return power to states and preserve core programs

Washington DC, March 21 — In a sweeping move to reshape the American education system, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to begin dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, calling the federal body an expensive failure that has delivered poor results despite ballooning budgets.

“It’s doing us no good… We want to return our students to the states. We want education to come back to the states — and they’re going to do a phenomenal job,” Trump declared during a press conference.

Trump emphasized that essential programs like Pell Grants, Title I funding, and support for children with disabilities would be fully preserved and reassigned to other federal agencies better equipped to handle them. However, he maintained that the rest of the department had failed to justify its existence, citing poor academic performance metrics and soaring costs.

“Since 1979, the Department has spent over $3 trillion. Per-pupil spending has gone up more than 245%, and yet we’ve seen no meaningful improvement. Math and reading scores are at historic lows. We are spending more and getting less,” he said.

Trump blamed the Department’s creation under President Jimmy Carter as the beginning of centralized bureaucratic mismanagement. He noted that 13-year-old students now score worse in reading and math than they did when the department was founded, with 70% of 8th graders failing to reach proficiency in both subjects.

In some stark examples, Trump pointed to Baltimore schools, where he said 40% of high schools have zero students capable of doing basic math. “We’re talking about adding a few numbers together, and they can’t do it,” he added.

The executive order kicks off a “reduction in force”, slashing bureaucratic staff by half as the administration prepares a phased shutdown. Trump insisted that teachers would still be supported, stating: “Whether they’re union or not, we’ll take care of our teachers. They’re among the most important people in this country.”

While critics have expressed concern about the impact of such a move, Trump framed it as a return to commonsense federalism, allowing states to tailor their own education systems and compete globally.

“Denmark, Norway, Sweden, even China are outpacing us. So the argument that we’re too big a country doesn’t hold. We’re failing not because of size, but because of mismanagement,” Trump said.

As part of his broader education reform vision, Trump also promised that this state-based system would cost less and deliver more: “Probably the cost will be half, and the education will be many times better.”

The announcement marks one of the most significant shifts in U.S. education policy in decades, as the Trump administration aims to decentralize control and challenge the long-standing structure of federal involvement in schools.