The College Fix

The Trump administration is weighing whether it can and should issue an executive order to shut down the U.S. Department of Education or, barring that, seriously whittle the agency down, according to numerous news reports Tuesday.

Both the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that Elon Musk, who has been tasked by President Trump with downsizing numerous bloated federal bureaucracies across the beltway, is moving in on the education department.

“You probably know that [the Department of Government Efficiency] — the DOGE team — is, like the other federal departments, is here working on President Trump’s promise to the American people to reform the federal bureaucracy, so we’re going to increase efficiencies in O.C.R. and Ed generally,” Craig Trainor, the office’s acting assistant secretary, said during an all-hands-on-deck meeting, according to a recording obtained by the Times.

“…The Musk team’s engagement came as the White House has been discussing the possibility of issuing an executive order to effectively shut down the Education Department, according to people familiar with the conversations,” the Times added.

The Journal, which also quoted anonymous sources, reported:

The officials have discussed an executive order that would shut down all functions of the agency that aren’t written explicitly into statute or move certain functions to other departments, according to people familiar with the matter. The order would call for developing a legislative proposal to abolish the department, the people said. Trump’s advisers are debating the specifics of the order and the timing, the people said. …

Before Trump took office, the administration’s transition team drafted an executive order that would have directed the education secretary to make a plan to eliminate the department and call on Congress to approve such an effort, according to a person familiar with the matter.

As The College Fix previously reported, the Trump team has taken major steps in the last two weeks to purge the agency of diversity, equity and inclusion programs and employees.

But whether the president can abolish the education department — something he promised on the campaign trail — remains unclear.

The federal agency is massive. It began in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter, and now employs more than 4,000 people with an annual budget of about $80 billion.

The department is in charge of, among other things, financial aid and student loans for college students, career and vocational education funding, Title IX regulations and oversight, and the Office for Civil Rights. It also maintains massive data records on all schools in the nation.

The department’s federal student loan portfolio amounts to approximately $1.6 trillion in student loan debt, and it is also “responsible for the mechanism that gives students access to college financial aid: the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA,” NPR reported.

MORE: Trump promised to get rid of Education Department – but can he?

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