By Lauren Burke
A busy news week heading into the Thanksgiving holiday has distracted from a continuing effort by the Trump Administration to relocate, and in some cases end, the U.S. Department of Education. It has long been known that Trump and his policy advisors want to dismantle the department — but the acceleration over the last week has taken some by surprise.
The U.S. Department of Education was established in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter. It was created to unify and elevate federal efforts to support public schools and protect students’ civil rights. It has also been the department that has amplified the national education policy.
“The Trump Administration cannot close a federal agency without an act of Congress. Nevertheless, the Trump Administration is intent on breaking the law and dismantling the Department of Education,” Rep. Bobby Scott, the senior Democrat on the House Committee on Education and Workforce, said in a written statement on Nov. 20.
“Today’s announcement is part and parcel of the Trump Administration’s larger agenda to reduce federal enforcement of civil rights laws and eliminate support for low-income communities. A core function of ED is to protect and defend students’ civil rights,” Rep. Scott added.
Since taking office again in January, the Trump Administration has made its central focus to dismantle civil rights policies passed in the 1960s. The undoing of civil rights protections and a theme of anti-Blackness is now a cornerstone policy during Trump’s second term in office.
Trump has reversed the 2015 “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) rule, a civil-rights tool aimed at reducing segregation and racial disparities in housing. Trump has also ended disparate-impact liability in civil-rights enforcement, and in 2025, Trump signed an executive order instructing federal agencies to deprioritize enforcement of “disparate-impact” theory — a legal standard used to challenge policies that, while neutral on their face, disproportionately harm protected groups. Trump has also ended key DEI and affirmative-action programs in federal hiring and rescinded Executive Order 11246 (initially signed in 1965), which required federal contractors to maintain affirmative-action programs to promote diversity in hiring.
“The federal government must retain its central role in enforcing students’ civil rights, because historically, when states had no federal oversight, we saw segregation of public schools, a refusal to educate students with disabilities, and a lack of resources for low-income communities,” Rep. Scott also pointed out in his Nov. 19 statement.
At a committee hearing on the morning of November 20, Rep. Summer Lee, who represents parts of Pittsburgh, made a pointed observation. As Republicans held a hearing on career and technical education, Rep. Lee pointed out the irony of the Department of Education being dismantled by President Trump in the background.
“Republicans can’t simultaneously hold a hearing about how to strengthen students’ skills through career and technical education while also allowing this administration to dismantle the sole agency tasked with expanding the same students’ educational opportunities and protecting their civil rights,” Rep. Lee said.
One of the remaining mysteries of the Trump Administration’s efforts to destroy the Department of Education is what will happen to the civil rights division within the department. Will the work of the office be destroyed completely or moved to another department in the government? That remains an open question.
