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Trump signs order dismantling Education Dept

US President Donald Trump holds up an executive order after signing it in the East Room of the White house in Washington, DC. — AFP
US President Donald Trump holds up an executive order after signing it in the East Room of the White house in Washington, DC. — AFP
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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signed an order on Thursday aimed at "eliminating" the Department of Education, a decades-old goal of the American right, which wants individual states to run schools free from the federal government.


Surrounded by schoolchildren sitting at desks set up in the East Room of the White House, Trump smiled as held up the order after signing it at a special ceremony.


Trump said the order would "begin eliminating the federal Department of Education once and for all."


"We're going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible. It's doing us no good," Trump said. "We're going to return education back to the states where it belongs."


The Education Department, created in 1979, cannot be shuttered without the approval of Congress — but Trump's order will likely have the power to starve it of funds and staff.


The move honours one of Trump's campaign promises and is among the most drastic steps yet in the brutal overhaul of the government that Trump is carrying out with the help of tech tycoon Elon Musk.


The order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to "take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the States."


Democrats and educators have slammed the move.


The top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, called it a "tyrannical power grab" and "one of the most destructive and devastating steps Donald Trump has ever taken."


Republican leaders, including governors Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas, were in the audience for the signing ceremony.


Trump has cast the move as necessary to save money and improve educational standards in the US, claiming they are lagging behind those in Europe and China.


But education has been a battleground for decades in America's culture wars and Republicans have long wanted to remove control of it from the federal government.


Trump's appointment of McMahon — the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment — to lead the department was widely seen as a sign that its days were numbered.


The president said at the signing ceremony that "hopefully she will be our last secretary of education."


McMahon, who moved to halve the department's staff after being sworn in earlier this month, told reporters at the White House that Trump "wants to get those dollars back to the states without the bureaucracy of Washington."


Trump promised on the campaign trail to get rid of the department and devolve its powers to US states, in much the same way that has happened with abortion rights.


But the White House said earlier that a rump education department was likely to stay on to deal with "critical functions" including loans and some grants for low-income students. — AFP


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