After slashing its staff by nearly half, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to further dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.

Describing the “breathtaking failures” of the country’s education system, the president said Thursday his order would “begin eliminating” the federal department.

“We’re going to be returning education back to the states, where it belongs,” Trump said during an event at the White House, where he was joined by students and several Republican governors, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Earlier in the day, Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters the administration was “greatly reducing the size and scale of the department.”

Actually eliminating the department — which is responsible for administering billions of dollars in funding to schools — would require congressional approval, and experts say it’s an unlikely scenario. Trump is also likely to face legal challenges, with the American Federation of Teachers union promising a lawsuit.

For local schools, “we really don’t know how impactful this will be,” said Steven Ludwig, an attorney with the Fox Rothschild law firm, which provides legal services to schools across the Philadelphia region. But, he said, it could be “incredibly severe.”

Here’s what to know about Trump’s order, and what happens next:

Question: What does the order say?

Answer: The order directs the education secretary, “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law,” to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.” It also calls for “ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”

The order also reiterates the focus of past Trump orders — calling for the education secretary to ensure that federal education funding complies with law and “administration policy, including the requirement that any program or activity receiving Federal assistance terminate illegal discrimination obscured under the label ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ or similar terms and programs promoting gender ideology.”

Q: Can Trump actually close the DOE?

A: Trump said Thursday that his administration would close the department: “We’re going to shut it down, and shut it down as quickly as possible.”

Although conservatives have long called for ending the Department of Education, which was created in 1979, it hasn’t happened yet. Experts say it’s unlikely congressional Republicans would be able to succeed now.

Trump would have to get through a Senate filibuster, and “won’t have the Democratic votes for that,” said Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution think tank.

While promising to close the department, Trump — who said Education Secretary Linda McMahon would “hopefully” be the last in her role — appeared to acknowledge the congressional hurdle. “The Democrats know it’s right, and I hope they’re going to be voting for it,” he said.

Q: What happens to funding for schools?

A: While most funding for K-12 schools comes from local and state taxes, federal funding also plays a role. In Pennsylvania, federal money accounted for 6.5% of school district budgets in 2022-23; the share varies by district, with poorer communities generally relying more on federal money.

Much of the funding administered by the Department of Education is dictated by law, including its two biggest funding streams: Title I, which directs money to schools with high concentrations of students in poverty, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which authorizes grants for special education services.

Trump said Thursday that the department’s “useful functions” — he named Title I, resources for children with special needs, and Pell Grants issued by the department to low-income college students — would “be preserved,” and “redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them.” He didn’t mention the department’s Office for Civil Rights, which his administration has slashed, including closing its Philadelphia office, while also opening new investigations into alleged antisemitism on college campuses.

But “most of the offices in the Department of Education are named in the authorizing statute,” and can’t be wiped out by executive order, said Michael Petrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education policy think tank that promotes school choice. He said Trump couldn’t unilaterally transfer funding streams to other departments.

“Most of these changes are not going to be noticeable by most people at the local level,” Petrilli said, adding: “That assumes the money keeps flowing.”

Q: How could local schools be affected?

A: But not everyone is convinced federal funding will be preserved.

“You’re looking at that through a prism of normalcy and adherence to the rule of law,” Ludwig said, noting Trump actions abruptly terminating grants in other areas, and threats to cut funding to schools over DEI initiatives.

In a letter last week responding to the federal DOE layoffs, Acting Pennsylvania Education Secretary Carrie Rowe advised school administrators that “your awareness of how federal funds are allocated and utilized within your local schools will be critical in preparing for and responding to any disruptions.”

Philadelphia Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. said Thursday that the recent layoffs and department’s anticipated dismantling “are understandably raising concern about impacts on the educational landscape across the country, including the School District of Philadelphia.” He said the district was “actively monitoring the rapidly evolving developments” and would provide periodic updates “during these uncertain times.”

Even if current funding is preserved, federal changes could affect local schools, Valant said. In administering IDEA money, for instance, the education department is supposed to ensure that districts use it for special education services.

“When you undercut the department’s ability to run these programs ... you’re opening up a lot of ability for misuse and fraud,” Valant said.

He also predicted longer-term implications, including from cuts to the department’s research arm that collects data on student performance and teaching practices. “We are going to be in the dark about making decisions about what to teach and how to invest resources,” Valant said.

And while Trump officials may not plan immediate cuts to Title I or IDEA, public education advocates worry those programs are still vulnerable. Any cuts there “will be felt very directly” by schools, Valant said.

Petrilli doesn’t think major education funding streams are in jeopardy.

He noted that federal oversight in education had already been scaled back by the Every Student Succeeds Act passed in 2015 under then-President Barack Obama, which repealed Bush-era No Child Left Behind requirements and gave states more flexibility in how to intervene in failing schools.

But by gutting the education department’s staff, it may be harder for a future administration to resume a federal leadership role in education, Petrilli said.

Q: How are Pennsylvania and New Jersey politicians reacting?

A: Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman, a Republican, in a statement Thursday, voiced support for Trump’s order and said “eliminating bureaucracy is a good thing.”

“Allowing more dollars to flow directly to local communities, with their ability to use them flexibly, would be an overall benefit to providing educational opportunities for all children,” Pittman added.

Meanwhile, Democrats were quick to condemn Trump’s order. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called it “unconscionable and unconstitutional.” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, did not immediately issue a statement Thursday evening.

Democratic state Sen. Vincent Hughes said it was a “slap in the face” to students, teachers, and parents.

Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of Education Law Center-PA, which represented school districts and parents in a lawsuit that led to Pennsylvania’s school funding system being declared unconstitutional, said gutting the Department of Education would put the most needy students at risk of losing critical funding. She noted the federal government provides more than $4.6 billion annually for public education in Pennsylvania.

”We urge Congress to stop the abuse of executive authority, ensure that the federal funding our schools depend on continues to flow, and restore the federal commitment to equal access to education,” Gordon Klehr said.

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