Can Trump kill the Dept. of Education?

Can Trump kill the Department of Education? And what would happen if he did?

What you probably already know: Republican leaders have campaigned on the idea of reducing the size of government and cutting entire departments for decades. Failing to remember which departments he wanted to cut may have cost Rick Perry his campaign for president in 2011. Now, though, President-elect Donald Trump has set his sights on the Department of Education, and has promised to move everything the department does back to the states. While he hasn’t yet named someone to head up the agency, it’s clear he sees it as an expendable institution. So is it even possible to close down a whole department? And what does the Department of Education do, anyway?

Why? Republicans claim the department has encouraged extreme ideology in the public schools, particularly around issues of gender and race, which has made it an easy target for the culture wars. The department has only been around since 1979, created by President Jimmy Carter to manage federal funding for public schools and regulate civil rights laws, but mostly to focus on higher education. While the department is under fire for issues related to K-12 students, the vast majority of its funding and focus is actually on colleges and universities. More than 70% of its annual budget goes to the federal student aid program, including $90 billion loans and $39 billion Pell Grants every year that are then distributed to colleges.

What it means: Closing the Department of Education would be harder than it sounds. It would have to go through Congress, where both the Senate and House would have to vote to disband the agency. That vote would likely mean less funding for the universities and public schools in many lawmakers’ home states, something that would be extremely unpopular with most constituents. Many experts think most of focus on the department is a talking point to try to gain support for more local control of schools, such as “school choice” and charter schools.

What happens now? While it is unlikely Trump could fully shutter the Department of Education, he could cut funding and put in place leadership that makes it more difficult for the department to function. He has spoken about forbidding schools to teach lessons on gender identity and cultural racism, and wants to prevent transgender athletes from participating in sports. He could do this by limiting or cutting federal funds to schools that offered these programs, though the president cannot directly force schools to make curriculum changes.