President Trump signs order dismantling US Education Department

This is a developing story and will be updated.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that would largely dismantle the US Department of Education.

It comes roughly one week after the president moved to halve the agency’s workforce in a mass layoff, though the administration has telegraphed its intentions for months.

Trump has frequently accused schools of "indoctrinating" students with "radical, anti-American ideologies." In a separate January order, he threatened to withhold federal funds from any K–12 school or school division that engages in "the instruction, advancement, or promotion of gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology."

Virginia Education Association President Carol Bauer called the executive order “an outright attack on public education” that especially harms vulnerable students.

“This reckless plan would steal resources from low-income students, children with disabilities, and English learners—while also gutting critical civil rights protections that ensure all students have the opportunity to learn,” Bauer said in a statement Thursday. “This isn’t just an attack on a government agency—it’s an attack on our students, our educators, and the future of public education in Virginia. We call on all elected officials to stand with educators, parents, and students to stop this assault on our schools.”

As VPM News reported earlier this week, the complete elimination of federal funding would leave Virginia schools with a collective $2.4 billion funding gap: That means localities and the commonwealth would need to cover costs for instructors in high-poverty schools, food programs for low-income students and teacher training programs designed to improve student achievement.

Immediately, though? Individual school districts are in the middle of crafting their budgets for fiscal 2026, and the executive order could directly impact that working math. (Virginia’s fiscal year runs July 1–June 30.)