Effort to close Department of Education

NPR - Changes are underway at the U.S. Department of Education, with potentially more significant developments on the horizon. Sources have informed NPR that Trump is preparing to issue an executive action to accomplish two goals: swiftly making relatively small staff and program cuts and urging Congress to abolish the department. This comes as several dozen of the department’s 4,400 employees have already been placed on paid leave.

Congress created the department and its signature roles, which makes it much more difficult to cut, NPR’s Cory Turner says. The department has a budget of around $79 billion. There have been plenty of past efforts to close the department and rewrite the rules of big programs like Title I, but lawmakers, including many Republicans, have opposed them.

The Department of Government Efficiency, which is not a Cabinet agency, has caused significant chaos and confusion under Elon Musk's leadership. Trump's unelected adviser has initiated a campaign from within the federal government to radically upend agencies. Recently, DOGE gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment systems, which manage trillions of dollars of spending every year. 🎧 Musk is rapidly moving through large parts of the federal government and is promising to divide and conquer what he perceives as “the deep state,” NPR’s Bobby Allyn says. A question DOGE faces is: Can Musk legally have this much access and control over the federal government? The White House has made Musk a special government employee, which is a temporary government job. Richard Painter, the White House’s top ethics lawyer during the George W. Bush administration, says this is uncharted territory and no Democratic or Republican administration has ever sent people into agencies in such an intrusive manner. Changes are underway at the U.S. Department of Education, with potentially more significant developments on the horizon. Sources have informed NPR that Trump is preparing to issue an executive action to accomplish two goals: swiftly making relatively small staff and program cuts and urging Congress to abolish the department. This comes as several dozen of the department’s 4,400 employees have already been placed on paid leave.     Congress created the department and its signature roles, which makes it much more difficult to cut, NPR’s Cory Turner says. The department has a budget of around $79 billion. There have been plenty of past efforts to close the department and rewrite the rules of big programs like Title I, but lawmakers, including many Republicans, have opposed them.