President-elect Donald Trump announced on Monday that his administration intends to close the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and transfer education responsibilities to individual states.
In a video statement, Trump said, “Early in the administration, I’ll be closing up the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and sending all education work and needs back to the states. We want them to manage the education of our children because they’ll do a much better job of it. We spend three times more per pupil than any other nation, and yet we’re at the bottom in outcomes.”
He continued, “We’re going to end federal control over education and shut down these buildings all over the place. In some cases, we have people in D.C. who don’t have our children’s best interests at heart. We’re sending it all back to the States.”
Established by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, the Department of Education provides key programs such as Title I funding for high-poverty K-12 schools and Pell Grants for undergraduate students with significant financial need.
