President Donald Trump ordered the Secretary of Education to begin dismantling the Department of Education March 20, nine days after the department announced it would cut staff by nearly 50%.

The department, established in 1979, administers education funding and student aid, including the Free Application for Student Aid, Pell Grants and a $1.6 trillion portfolio of government-subsidized loans.

The executive order instructs Linda McMahon, the Secretary of Education, to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education … to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.”

64% of bachelor’s degree students in UMass Boston’s 2017 cohort received a Pell Grant or subsidized loan, according to the university’s most recent Common Data Set report. The CDS is an education statistics database maintained by the College Board, Peterson’s and U.S. News & World Report.

Trump said student loans would be administered by the Small Business Administration under the Department of Commerce. “It will be serviced much better than it has in the past,” he said. The SBA is in the process of cutting 43% of its staff, after which it will have approximately the same number of employees that the education department had prior to staffing cuts, according to the Associated Press.

The previous week, the department announced it would lay off 1950 of its 4133 staff members, including all of the employees at the Boston regional office. That number includes approximately 600 who accepted a payout in exchange for their resignation, according to the DOE’s statement. “All divisions within the Department are impacted by the reduction, with some divisions requiring significant reorganization to better serve students, parents, educators, and taxpayers,” the department stated.

The first lawsuit challenging the order is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The lawsuit, filed March 24 by the American Federation of Teachers, American Association of University Professors and two Massachusetts school districts, argues that the president lacks the authority to eliminate the department.

The challengers argue that Trump’s order is unlawful and would “harm millions of students, school districts, and educators across the nation.” A similar lawsuit is pending in federal court in Maryland.

Departments of the federal government must be established or closed by an act of Congress. “It cannot be eliminated by the President or the Secretary of Education,” the lawsuit states. Many of the department’s programs were also specifically mandated by Congress.

The White House argues that the department is a waste of money because it does not directly educate students, and because test scores have gone down since the department’s creation. The executive order also states that closing the department will “return authority over education to the States and local communities.” The DOE does not set curriculum or graduation requirements.

“Taxpayers will no longer be burdened with tens of billions of dollars wasted on progressive social experiments and obsolete programs,” The White House stated.

The department also enforces laws that require schools to provide disability accommodations; prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin and gender; require schools to maintain confidentiality of educational records; and allow students to request access to their records. Under Trump’s plan, the Department of Health and Human Services would control education-related disability programs. HHS announced March 13 that it will cut its staff by 10,000 people.

“Throughout the years since the Department’s creation, Congress has assigned it the responsibility to operate numerous programs that have a profound, positive impact on American families,” the lawsuit states. “These programs ensure that students with disabilities, school systems that lack financial means, schools in sparsely populated counties, students who want practical career training rather than advanced degrees, and students who need financial assistance to pursue higher education, are all not left behind.”

Trump repeatedly promised to close the department during his campaign. “I want to close up the Department of Education, move education back to the states,” Trump said on a Sept. 5, 2024 livestream about government efficiency with billionaire Elon Musk, who is now a special government employee leading the Department of Government Efficiency, formerly known as the U.S. Digital Service. Trump first suggested Musk for that role during the same livestream.

Project 2025, the plan for Trump’s second term drafted by a conservative think tank, also called for the department’s closure. Despite strong overlap in policy, Trump attempted to distance himself from Project 2025 during the campaign, claiming during the Sept. 10, 2024 debate that he had not read it. Upon assuming office, he hired some of the plan’s architects to senior positions in his administration.