President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Thursday to initiate the dismantling of the Department of Education.
According to two administration officials who spoke with CNN, the measure marks the beginning of a key campaign promise to move away the educational authority of the Federal Government.
The firm is expected to take place in a White House event on Thursday afternoon, where Republican governors, state education officials and schoolchildren have also been invited, officials said.
“President Trump's executive order to expand educational opportunities will train parents, states and communities to take control and improve the results for all students,” said White House spokesman Harrison Fields, in a statement.
Although closing the department would completely require the approval of the Congress, Trump is expected to address the Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, to begin taking measures to facilitate closing and deduce educational control to the United States.
An administration official said that the Directive would instruct McMahon to take “all necessary measures to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and the Return Education Authority to the States.”
A senior official clarified that funds for students with disabilities under the Law of Education of Persons with Disabilities, Funds of Title I for low -income schools and federal payments of student loans would not be affected by the Executive Order.
Also read: USA
The development was first informed by USA Today, while CNN had previously revealed that the White House was preparing the order to begin the closing process of the department.
During his campaign, Trump repeatedly promised the department, describing it as an example of federal overreach and linking it with broader cultural problems. “I told Linda (McMahon):” Linda, I hope you do a great job to leave you out of a job. “I want her to get out of a job – Department of Education,” Trump said in February.
The order also follows the recent workforce cuts in the department, which announced at the beginning of this month that almost 50% of its staff, approximately 1,300 employees, would be fired, with hundreds more that accept voluntary purchases.
The plan has caused a strong opposition of the unions.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk have directed their demolition ball in public schools and the future of the 50 million students in rural, suburban and urban communities in America, by dismantling public education to pay prosecutors for billionaire,” said the president of the National Association of Education, Becky Pringle, in a statement.
“If you succeed, Trump's continuous actions will harm all students by sending upward class sizes, cutting job training programs, making higher education more expensive and beyond the reach of middle -class families, eliminating special education services for students with disabilities and destroying the protections of students' civil rights,” he said.
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