WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday aiming to eliminate the U.S. Education Department, advancing a campaign promise to eliminate an agency that’s been a longtime target of conservatives.
Trump has derided the department as wasteful and polluted by liberal ideology. Completing its dismantling is most likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979.
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The White House says the department would not close completely right now. It is to retain certain critical functions, like managing federal student loans and Pell grants.
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