Donald Trump has signed an executive order to dismantle the US Department of Education while seated at a tiny desk surrounded by schoolchildren. The Telegraph has more.
The order hands control over education policy from the federal government to states and local boards.
“We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs,” the President said at the White House ceremony.
Before sitting down behind his desk, the President asked the group of assembled children if he should sign the order and was greeted by enthusiastic nods.
As he put pen to paper, the children behind him, who were each given their own black felt tip pen and document, signed their own names before raising the documents in the air.
It is not the first time the President has been given an under-sized desk for a signing ceremony. In 2017, he signed several pieces of legislation into law behind a desk he described as a “child’s desk” and “the smallest desk I’ve ever seen”.
The decision to close the department is likely to set up another battle in the courts as shuttering it completely requires the approval of Congress, and the President does not currently have enough votes for that.
The order follows the department’s announcement last week that it would lay off nearly half of its staff and is the latest step by Mr Trump to cut through federal bureaucracy.
Mr Trump said he wants Linda McMahon, the Education Secretary, who attended the White House event, to put herself out of a job. “Hopefully you won’t be there too long,” he said.
Worth reading in full.
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That will never happen. I can see why people might welcome it but he knows that technically speaking it could never happen. Just another fancy firework to keep the plebs amused and entertained as they’re systematically gang-raped.
If it actually happens, perhaps one of the states will become the top dog for standards in education, or perhaps some of them will co-operate.
Or perhaps the government of each state will do what they feel is right for the people who elected them. The US has a federal structure. I doubt the founders ever intended the federal government to try and run education.
Why does any government need to be involved in education at all, or in imposing “standards”. Do you think people are so stupid that they cannot work out which schools are any good or not without help from a government?
Odd that they have a federal education to dictate to the states how they should educate children yet the important matter of election security is NOT a federal matter.
Good point
Excellent.
This is something which absolutely shouldn’t be controlled by the central state.
Annual budget $268 billion-‘and there will be state and local authorities too – this is just the Federal budget.
Once again, let the parents of Walnut Grove decide for themselves what they wish their children to learn. Bring it on. I hope it happens.
It is satisfying to watch the levels of bureaucracy removed. Each state will now be the sole watchdog for education, without more snouts at the trough in the federal gov’t.