In another unprecedented attempt to consolidate power, the Trump administration announced today that it would move to dismantle the Department of Education by shifting several offices to other agencies — despite acknowledging that only Congress has the authority to do so. The plan is a key component of Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda, which Trump has repeatedly claimed he knows “nothing about.” 

In response, DNC Senior Spokesperson Marcus W. Robinson released the following statement:  

“Donald Trump’s latest effort to dismantle the Department of Education is part of a plan to outright eliminate the agency, just like was promised in the Project 2025 playbook. By empowering his billionaire buddy Linda McMahon to chip away at civil rights enforcement, special education, and programs serving Native students, Trump is once again prioritizing tax breaks for billionaires over America’s children. Rather than strengthening our public education system, the Trump administration is actively undermining the very institutions designed to ensure that every child in America has a fair chance to succeed.”

Trump signed an executive order in March to begin the process of dismantling the Department of Education, laying off nearly half of its employees and vowing “to shut it down, and shut it down as quickly as possible.” Trump has anointed MAGA donor turned Education Secretary Linda McMahon to shutter the department and take a wrecking ball to America’s public education system. 

The plans include moving several Department offices to other agencies, including offices responsible for administering K-12 grant programs in high-poverty areas, helping students access and finish college, and providing child care and foreign language programs — despite federal law requiring these offices to remain under the Education Department’s purview.