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The President of the United States, Donald Trump, made his campaign promise to start closing the Ministry of Education, although his efforts are likely to deal with judicial disputes and constitutional obstacles.
On Thursday, the Republican chief organized a ceremony developed to sign a decree that sparked the disappearance of the ministry.
A half-circle of children was organized in offices around the president, each with their own version of the decree to sign. When Trump stripped his marker to sign the order, the children followed suit. When he raised the command finished for cameras, children too.
“I will sign an executive decree to start eliminating the Federal Ministry of Education once and for all,” said Trump in remarks before the signature ceremony.
“And that seems strange, isn’t it? Department of education, we will eliminate it, and everyone knows that it is true, and the Democrats know that it is true.”
But the Democrats and the defenders of education quickly denounced action as not only another example of presidential overtaking, but as an effort that would harm students across the country.
“Trying to dismantle the Ministry of Education is one of the most destructive and most devastating stages that Donald Trump has ever taken. wrote On social networks in the minutes following the ceremony.
The order called for the Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, a longtime ally of Trump, to “take all necessary measures” to facilitate the closure of the ministry, which must be approved by the congress.
The Ministry of Education was founded in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter, as part of an effort to consolidate various education initiatives within the federal government. In doing so, he created a new position at the office level, something that the Republicans then asserted the power of local academic states and school boards.
However, the ministry has a limited mandate. It does not define study programs or school programs, but rather focuses on collecting data on education, dissemination of research, distribution of federal aid and the application of anti-discrimination measures.
Trump deplores test results
However, Trump has repeatedly held the department responsible for the low success of education in American schools, according to experts in affirmation, he is misleading.
“We are not doing well with the world of education in this country. And we haven’t done it for a long time,” said Trump at Thursday’s ceremony.
The United States is indeed following other countries in the global results of standardized tests – but it is by no means the last, as Trump sometimes said.
The International Student Evaluation Program (PISA), an international metric for education standards, has found that American students are ranking on average in its test results: countries above countries such as Mexico and Brazil but below places like Singapore, Japan and Canada.
The test results had decreased in mathematics from 2018 to 2022, which Pisa attributed to the Pandemic COVVI-19. But reading and science achievements have remained stable.
Trump, on the other hand, has also linked the Ministry of Education to its broader campaign to reduce the presumed waste and fraud in the federal government, including thanks to generalized layoffs.
He explained on Thursday on the podium that he had offered buyout offers to employees of the education department.
“We have reduced the number of bureaucrats in two. Five percent took offers,” Trump told applause.
He added that employees consisted of “a small handful of democrats and others that we have been using for a long time – and there are Republicans, but not too much, I must be honest with you.”
Trump previously undertook to expel all the “bureaucrats of Biden” and to install loyalists instead.
Critics, however, say that he has targeted non -partisan members of public service members with its layoffs, many of which help maintain the administration government’s stability.
McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment is an ally of Trump who risks losing his position within the framework of the department of the department.
Trump, however, reassured her on Thursday of the podium she would remain in her government: “We will find something else for you, Linda.”
Trump has authority?
Despite his decree, Trump alone cannot close the Ministry of Education.
Only the congress can officially close a department at the office. But already, the Republicans like Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana have advanced to start the legislative procedures.
“I agree with President Trump that the Ministry of Education failed his mission,” said Cassidy in a press release.
“Since the ministry can only be closed with the approval of the congress, I will support the president’s objectives by submitting legislation to achieve it as soon as possible.”
But if such legislation was introduced, it would probably not generate enough support to reach the threshold of 60 votes necessary to overcome the filibusier in the Senate at 100 places.
“The Republicans do not have that,” said Al Jazeera correspondent Shihab Rattansi, postponing Washington, DC. Republicans have only 53 places.
However, Rattansi predicts that the question will probably be found before the Supreme Court, while the defenders of education are preparing to set up judicial disputes.
The Department of Education, explained Rattansi, “is considered to be relatively low fruits” while the Trump administration tries to extend its executive scope.
“They have a very vast vision of executive power. They want to test this in court,” he said.
Part of the reason for its vulnerability is that the department is relatively young: it was founded during the last half century.
But Rattansi warned that critical educational functions could be lost or suspended while judicial disputes are making their way in the judicial system.
“What the Ministry of Education does is ensuring equal access to education for minorities, for poor children, for disabled children, etc.
“In the long term, however, it is a question of testing the limits of Donald Trump’s executive power.”
Already, teachers’ unions such as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) are preparing for a legal struggle.
“While the Republican Governors of the White House celebrate the dismantling of a federal role in education, our members across the country are worried about the impact that this will have on their students,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten statement. “It is not efficiency, it is evisceration.”
What happens to the functions of the department?
Trump’s decree undertakes to ensure “the effective and uninterrupted service of services, programs and advantages that Americans count”.
But criticism fear of programs such as the PELL grant – which offers financial assistance to low -income students – and services for disabled students may suffer when the ministry is dismantled. Trump tried to appease these concerns on Thursday.
“They will be kept entirely and redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take great care of them,” he said.
However, he pointed out that individual states would take control of most of the ministry’s functions. And his order specified that no other federal fund would be devoted to programs related to “gender ideology” or diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), two frequent targets of its anger.
“We will close it and close it as quickly as possible,” said Trump about the Department of Education.
“It doesn’t do us good. We want to return our students to the United States where some of the governors here are so happy. ”
In the public was the governor of Florida, Ron Desantis, a former Trump rival in the 2024 presidential election, who also campaigned on the dismantling of the department.
However, criticisms like the Michigan Democratic Democratic Legislator of Michigan arisen that there was no other agency capable of applying national standards for equal access to education.
“The federal funding of the ministry guarantees that all children, whatever they are or in which postal code in which they were born, can carry out quality education. Without the Ministry of Education, many of our children will be left behind, unable to receive the education they need and deserve “, it”, it wrote in a declaration.
“Without the Ministry of Education, no one will be left to ensure that civil rights laws are applied in our schools.”
She added that Thursday’s move was clearly unconstitutional. “I look forward to being disputed in court.”
