Trump signs order aimed at dismantling US Department of Education

Flanked by students and educators, US President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order intended to essentially dismantle the federal Department of Education, making good on a longstanding campaign promise to conservatives.

The order is designed to leave school policy almost entirely in the hands of states and local boards, a prospect that alarms liberal education advocates.

Thursday's order was a first step "to eliminate" the department, Trump said at a signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House. Shuttering the agency completely requires an act of Congress, and Trump lacks the votes for that.

"We're going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs," said Trump in front of a colourful backdrop of state flags.

Young students invited to the event sat at classroom desks encircling the president and signed their own mock executive orders alongside him.

The signing followed the department's announcement last week that it would lay off nearly half of its staff, in step with Trump's sweeping efforts to reduce the size of a federal government he considers to be bloated and inefficient.

Education has long been a political lightning rod in the United States. Conservatives favour local control over education policy and school-choice options that help private and religious schools, and left-leaning voters largely support robust funding for public schools and diversity programmes.

But Trump has elevated the fight to a different level, making it part of a generalised push against what conservatives view as liberal indoctrination in America's schools from the university level down to K-12 instruction.

He has sought to re-engineer higher education in the United States by reducing funding and pushing to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion policies at colleges and universities, just as he has in the federal government.

Columbia University, for example, faced a Thursday deadline to respond to demands to tighten restrictions on campus protests as preconditions for opening talks on restoring $400 million in suspended federal funding.

The White House also argues the Education Department is a waste of money, citing mediocre test scores, disappointing literacy rates and lax math skills among students as proof that the return on the agency's trillions of dollars in investment was poor.

Local battles over K-12 curricula accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic, which saw parents angrily confront officials at school board meetings nationwide. It was a discontent that Trump, other Republican candidates and conservative advocacy groups such as Moms for Liberty tapped into.