US President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Thursday to close the Education Department," according to a fact sheet provided by the White House.
Trump will hold an event at the White House to sign the order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
According to the administration's own numbers, Trump inherited a department with 4,133 employees. Nearly 600 workers have since chosen to leave, by resigning or retiring. And last week, 1,300 workers were told they would lose their jobs as part of a reduction-in-force. That leaves 2,183 staff at the department – roughly half the size it was just a few weeks ago.
President Jimmy Carter established the department in 1979 after Congress passed the Department of Education Organization Act in bipartisan votes.
McMahon recently moved to drastically reduce the size of the Education Department by cutting its workforce in half. She called the job terminations the first step toward shutting down the department.
"That was the president’s mandate," McMahon said last week in an interview with Fox News. "His directive to me, clearly, is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we’ll have to work with Congress, you know, to get that accomplished."
McMahon similarly vowed at her Senate confirmation hearing to work with Congress to advance Trump’s plan to dismantle the department. She telegraphed in an email to employees this month that major changes were coming.
“Our job is to respect the will of the American people and the President they elected, who has tasked us with accomplishing the elimination of bureaucratic bloat here at the Department of Education—a momentous final mission—quickly and responsibly,” she wrote, according to a copy obtained by NBC News.
The Senate confirmed McMahon in a 51-45 vote. No Democrat voted for her.