Trump pledged to close the Education Department. What would that mean?

President-elect Donald Trump has promised sweeping changes to federal agencies, but there’s one he wants to do away with altogether: the Department of Education.

Closing the department — an off-and-on Republican goal since it was created in 1979 — would require congressional approval, and it’s unlikely Trump would have sufficient support. But Trump has made this promise often, and many Republicans are with him, arguing that the department is unnecessary, ineffective and a tool of a “woke” culture war.

Here’s what to know.

What does the department do?

Trump has repeatedly promised to “return” responsibility for education to the states. In fact, education has long been the responsibility of state and local governments, which provide 90 percent of the funding and set most of the rules. The department does not dictate curriculum or have a hand in most school policies.

But the federal agency plays an important role.

It administers federal grant programs, including the $18.4 billion Title I program that provides supplemental funding to high-poverty K-12 schools, as well as the $15.5 billion program that helps cover the cost of education for students with disabilities. The department oversees the $1.6 trillion federal student loan program, and sets rules for what colleges must do to participate.

It also runs achievement tests dubbed the Nation’s Report Card and collects statistics on enrollment, crime in school, staffing and other topics.

And the agency is charged with enforcing civil rights laws that bar discrimination in federally funded schools on the basis of race, sex and other factors. The Biden administration has used that power, for instance, to prohibit schools from discriminating against students on the basis of gender identity. Trump could do the same in the opposite direction, perhaps barring schools from allowing trans girls and women to compete on women’s sports teams.

Could Trump eliminate the agency?

Trump cannot eliminate the agency on his own. Doing so would not only require congressional approval but also a supermajority of 60 votes in the Senate as long as its filibuster rules remain in place. Politically, this would be difficult if not impossible, with opposition from Democrats and likely some Republicans. A 2023 vote in the House to abolish the department, considered as an amendment to a parents’ rights bill, failed. It garnered 161 yes votes, but 60 Republicans joined every Democrat in voting no.

It’s unclear whether Trump would choose to make this a priority and expend political capital to fight this battle on Capitol Hill. On the campaign trail, several GOP candidates also called for closing the agency. But some conservatives are urging Trump to jettison the idea and instead use the agency’s powers to press conservative priorities.

Betsy DeVos, who was education secretary in Trump’s first term, has said the administration tried to dismantle the department through budget cuts, but lawmakers mostly kept the spending in tact. On the campaign trail, Trump promised to cut education spending in half, though it’s not clear whether even a Republican-controlled Congress would go along with that.

What are the implications of eliminating the Education Department?

Closing the Education Department would surely have symbolic impact. There would no longer be a member of the Cabinet focused solely on education issues and empowered to speak to Americans about the challenges schools face. It would be harder for the federal government to elevate education issues, or press for change in schools.

Beyond that, the practical impact would depend on how Congress restructured the work of the department. Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-led blueprint for a conservative administration, lays out a plan for assigning the agency’s functions to other departments. For instance, the Treasury Department would take a strong hand in administering the student loan program, and the Justice Department would enforce civil rights laws.

The bigger impact would come if Congress also cut funding for education programs - which Project 2025 also recommends - or eliminated any of the department’s central functions.

Americans have mixed and partisan views of the Education Department, according to a 2024 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. It found that 44 percent had favorable views of the agency and 45 percent had unfavorable views. But among Republicans and those who lean Republican, 64 percent viewed the agency unfavorably, compared with 26 percent of Democrats and those who lean Democratic.

What would be the impact on borrowers and student debt?

The Education Department runs the $1.6 trillion student loan program - the single biggest mission of the agency. Theoretically, the federal government could drastically reduce the agency’s role in student borrowing. More likely, another government or quasi-governmental agency would take on the responsibility if the agency was eliminated.

Trump opposes President Joe Biden’s student loan debt-forgiveness program, and it seems clear he would reverse it regardless of whether the agency continues to exist.

In 2023, Trump praised the Supreme Court for halting Biden’s plan, saying it would have been “very, very unfair to the millions and millions of people who have paid their debt through hard work.” In March 2020, however, Trump waived interest and paused payments on all federal student loans to reduce the financial burden on borrowers during the pandemic.

What has Trump said about the Education Department?

Closing the Education Department is a central plank in Trump’s schools agenda. In his “Agenda47″ campaign platform, he criticized the agency as ineffective and bloated and said that many of its employees “hate our children.”

Specifically, Trump has criticized the department’s work under Democrats to promote racial equity and protect rights of transgender students, much of it through enforcement of civil rights law. The agency, for instance, has said sex discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity.

During the campaign, Trump pledged to “cut federal funding for any school or program pushing critical race theory, gender ideology or other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children,” to “keep men out of women’s sports” - a reference to the debate over including trans athletes in women’s sports in schools - and to “find and remove the radicals who have infiltrated the federal Department of Education.”

He has also pointed to the poor overall performance of U.S. students in reading, math and science compared with their global peers as evidence that the department is not fulfilling its purpose.

What is the agency’s history?

The Education Department was created by an act of Congress in 1979, under President Jimmy Carter.

A much smaller Education Department briefly existed more than 100 years earlier. In 1867, President Andrew Johnson signed legislation creating the first such department - but it was soon downgraded to an office of education because of backlash from lawmakers who feared it would lead to federal overreach.

The federal government’s role in education grew after World War II when it increased spending including through the GI Bill, which provided millions of military veterans with educational benefits such as free college tuition. Passage of civil rights legislation gave the federal government new powers to ensure that schools do not discriminate against students on the basis of race or sex.

Education was part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare until 1980, when that agency was divided into two: the Education Department and the Department of Health and Human Services. The new education agency began operations in May 1980 and was tasked by Congress with “ensuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual,” supporting states’ education efforts and funding research to improve “the quality and usefulness of education,” among other mandates.