President Trump is expected to issue an executive order as early as today to start dismantling the Education Department. Although it would take an act of Congress to fully dissolve the agency, a draft presidential memo orders Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps permitted by law.” Those steps are likely to include cuts to the workforce and education programs.
This comes as the country’s largest labor union, the National Education Association, and the ACLU are suing the Education Department for threatening to withhold federal funding to schools that engage in DEI efforts — that’s diversity, equity and inclusion. The ACLU called the Trump administration’s move “a blatant attack on free speech and academic freedom, aiming to deprive students of a full and honest education.”