United States President Donald Trump has made good on a campaign promise to begin shuttering the Department of Education, though his efforts are likely to face court challenges and constitutional barriers.

On Thursday, the Republican leader held an elaborate ceremony to sign an executive order that would set in motion the department’s demise.

A semi-circle of children were arranged in desks around the president, each with their own version of the executive order to sign. When Trump uncapped his marker to sign the order, the children followed suit. When he lifted up the completed order for the cameras, so too did the kids.

“I will sign an executive order to begin eliminating the Federal Department of Education once and for all,” Trump said in remarks before the signing ceremony.

“And it sounds strange, doesn’t it? Department of Education, we’re going to eliminate it, and everybody knows it’s right, and the Democrats know it’s right.”

But Democrats and education advocates quickly denounced the action as not only another example of presidential overreach but as an effort that would harm students across the country.

“Attempting to dismantle the Department of Education is one of the most destructive and devastating steps Donald Trump has ever taken. This. Will. Hurt. Kids,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on social media within minutes of the ceremony.

The order called for Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, a longtime Trump ally, to “take all necessary steps” to facilitate the department’s closure, which must be approved by Congress.

The Department of Education was founded in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter, as part of an effort to consolidate various education initiatives within the federal government. In doing so, he created a new cabinet-level position, something Republicans even then argued would leach power away from states and local school boards.

The department, however, has a limited mandate. It does not set curriculums or school programming but rather focuses on collecting data on education, disseminating research, distributing federal aid and enforcing anti-discrimination measures.

Trump bemoans test scores

Still, Trump has repeatedly held the department responsible for low educational achievement in US schools, an assertion experts say is misleading.

“ We’re not doing well with the world of education in this country. And we haven’t for a long time,” Trump said at Thursday’s ceremony.

The US does indeed trail other countries in global standardised test scores – but it is by no means last, as Trump has sometimes asserted.

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international metric for education standards, has found that American students rank as average in their test scores: above countries like Mexico and Brazil but below places like Singapore, Japan and Canada.

Test scores had declined in mathematics from 2018 to 2022, something PISA attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. But achievements in reading and science remained stable.

Trump, meanwhile, also tied the Department of Education to his broader campaign to cut alleged waste and fraud in the federal government, including through widespread layoffs.

He explained from the podium on Thursday that he had offered buyout offers to Education Department employees.

“ We’ve cut the number of bureaucrats in half. Fifty percent have taken offers,” Trump said to applause.

He added that the employees consisted of “ a small handful of Democrats and others that we have employed for a long time – and there are some Republicans, but not too many, I have to be honest with you.”

Trump has previously pledged to expel all “Biden bureaucrats” and install loyalists instead.

Critics, however, say he has targeted nonpartisan civil service members with his layoffs, many of whom help maintain government stability from administration to administration.

One Trump ally who risks losing their position under the department shake-up is McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment.

Trump, however, reassured her from the podium on Thursday that she would remain in his government: “We’re going to find something else for you, Linda.”

Does Trump have the authority?

Despite his executive order, Trump cannot single-handedly shutter the Department of Education.

Only Congress can formally shut down a cabinet-level department. But already, Republicans like Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana have stepped forward to begin legislative proceedings.

“I agree with President Trump that the Department of Education has failed its mission,” Cassidy said in a news release.

“Since the Department can only be shut down with congressional approval, I will support the President’s goals by submitting legislation to accomplish this as soon as possible.”

But if such legislation is introduced, it would likely not generate enough support to reach the threshold of 60 votes needed to overcome the filibuster in the 100-seat Senate.

“The Republicans don’t have that,” said Al Jazeera correspondent Shihab Rattansi, reporting from Washington, DC. The Republicans only have a 53-seat majority.

Still, Rattansi predicts the issue will likely end up before the Supreme Court, as education advocates prepare to mount legal challenges.

The Education Department, Rattansi explained, “is thought of as relatively low-hanging fruit” as the Trump administration tries to expand its executive reach.

“They have a very expansive view of executive power. They want to test that in court,” he said.

Part of the reason for its vulnerability is that the department is relatively young: It was founded within the last half-century.

But Rattansi warned that critical educational functions could be lost or suspended while legal challenges wind their way through the court system.

“What the Department of Education does is ensure equal access to education for minorities, for poor kids, for disabled children, and so on. So there’s that extra level of oversight that will now be – potentially, in the short term – removed as court cases are fought,” he said.

“In the long term, though, this is all about testing the limits of executive power for Donald Trump.”

Already, teachers’ unions like the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) are gearing up for a legal fight.

“As Republican governors at the White House celebrate the dismantling of a federal role in education, our members across the country are worried about the impact this will have on their students,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement. “This isn’t efficiency, it’s evisceration.”

What happens to the department’s functions?

Trump’s executive order does pledge to ensure “the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely”.

But critics fear programmes like the Pell Grant – which offers financial aid to low-income students – and services for students with disabilities could suffer as the department is taken apart. Trump tried to assuage those concerns on Thursday.

“They’re going to be preserved in full and redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them,” he said.

He did, however, emphasise that individual states would be taking over the bulk of the department’s functions. His order specified no further federal funds would go to programmes related to “gender ideology” or diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), two frequent targets of his ire.

“ We’re gonna shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible,” Trump said of the Education Department.

“It’s doing us no good. We want to return our students to the states where just some of the governors here are so happy about this.”

In the audience was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a former rival of Trump’s in the 2024 presidential election, who likewise campaigned on dismantling the department.

Still, critics like Democratic lawmaker Rashida Tlaib of Michigan argued there was no other agency capable of enforcing national standards for equal education access.

“The Department’s federal funding ensures that all children, regardless of who they are or which zip code they are born in, can achieve a quality education. Without the Department of Education, many of our kids will be left behind, unable to receive the education they need and deserve,” she wrote in a statement.

“Without the Department of Education, no one will be left to ensure civil rights laws are enforced in our schools.”

She added that Thursday’s move was blatantly unconstitutional. “I look forward to it being challenged in court.”