President Donald Trump was poised Thursday to order dismantling the Department of Education, potentially fulfilling a longstanding goal of conservatives.

White House officials said Trump would sign an executive order to “facilitate the closure (of) the Department of Education,” although most analysts say the permanently eliminating the DOE would require the approval of Congress because lawmakers established and fund the agency.

Trump has regularly derided the DOE as a waste of taxpayer dollars and cesspool of damaging liberal “woke” ideology.

His order will vow to “return education authority to the states, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

The Trump administration has already been gutting DOE, one of several agencies that have been targeted by the White House and billionaire first buddy Elon Musk.

The DOE’s workforce has been slashed in half and there have been deep cuts to the Office for Civil Rights and the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on the nation’s academic progress.

Advocates for public schools and teachers said eliminating the Department of Education would be a disaster that would leave children behind in an American education system that is fundamentally unequal.

“This isn’t fixing education. It’s making sure millions of children never get a fair shot. And we’re not about to let that happen without a fight,” the National Parents Union said in a statement.

The department sends billions of dollars a year to schools and oversees $1.6 trillion in federal student loans. It also plays a significant role in overseeing civil rights enforcement.

The White House has not spelled out formally which Department of Education functions it plans to hand over to other federal agencies and which may be simply eliminated.

At her confirmation hearing, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said she would preserve core initiatives, including Title I money for low-income schools and Pell grants for low-income college students. She claimed the administration planned to implement “a better functioning Department of Education,” not eliminate it.

Federal funding makes up a relatively small portion of public school budgets — roughly 14%, with the rest coming mostly from local tax revenue. The money often supports supplemental programs for vulnerable students, such as the McKinney-Vento program for homeless students or Title I for low-income schools.

Colleges and universities are more reliant on money from Washington, through research grants along with federal financial aid that helps students pay their tuition.

Republicans have talked about closing the Education Department for decades, saying it wastes taxpayer money and inserts the federal government into decisions that should fall to states and local school districts.

Yet even some of Trump’s Republican allies have questioned his right to close the agency without action from Congress.

There are also major questions about the popularity of scrapping the agency. The House considered an amendment to close the DOE in 2023, but 60 Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the move.

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