特朗普签署旨在废除教育部的行政命令
【中美创新时报2025 年 3 月 21 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）在教育部长裁减近一半员工一周多后，特朗普总统周四签署了一项旨在废除教育部的行政命令，该部几十年来在确保所有学生享有平等的教育机会方面发挥了至关重要的作用。《波士顿环球报》记者Mandy McLaren 对此作了下述报道。
在那些主张将公共资金转移到私立学校的州长们在白宫的注视下，特朗普表示他打算将教育监督权交还给各州——这是保守派经常重复的言论，专家表示，这扭曲了联邦政府在国家学校中有限的作用。
“这是非常受欢迎的举措，但更重要的是，这是常识性举措，而且会奏效，”特朗普说。“绝对会奏效。”
相关：“更艰难”：一些家长担心特朗普的教育部命令会损害儿童和学校
这项行政命令立即引起了学生和教师权益团体以及民主党人的谴责。
“通过解散[教育部]，特朗普总统正在实施他自己的教育理念，可以用他自己的话来概括，‘我爱受教育程度低的人’，”弗吉尼亚州民主党众议员、众议院教育和劳动力委员会资深成员鲍比·斯科特 (Bobby Scott) 说。
特朗普不能完全取消这个内阁级机构，因为它是由国会创建的，只能由国会废除。共和党在参众两院都占多数，但在参议院缺乏通常需要克服阻挠议事的 60 票。
白宫当天早些时候发布的消息似乎承认，教育部或其项目将以某种形式继续存在。
白宫新闻秘书卡罗琳·莱维特周四表示，教育部“将比现在小得多”，继续管理学生贷款和佩尔助学金的大学项目。
该联邦机构于 1979 年成立，负责监督联邦对公立 K-12 学校的资助，管理大学的学生贷款和联邦财政援助，并为低收入学生及其家庭以及残疾人提供项目和服务。其年度预算接近 800 亿美元，在所有机构中排名第三，仅次于国防部和卫生与公众服务部。
然而，联邦资金占所有 K-12 支出的 13%，大部分来自州和地方政府。
行政命令指示教育部长琳达·麦克马洪（Linda McMahon）协助关闭该部门，同时确保其项目和服务不间断地继续进行。麦克马洪曾是职业摔跤队的高管，在教育方面经验有限。教育部的主要职责之一是管理和监督两个 K-12 补助计划：Title I，支持贫困学生；《残疾人教育法案》（IDEA），支持接受特殊教育服务的学生。
特朗普周四表示，这些计划将“完全保留”，但他暗示这些计划的管理可能会转移到其他机构。
他的最新命令是继其他几项令全国学校感到不安的命令之后发布的，其中包括禁止多元化计划和承认跨性别学生的命令。与他的其他命令一样，该部门可能会面临法律挑战。
特朗普指责该部门“向年轻人灌输不适当的种族、性和政治内容”，并在竞选期间承诺要解散该部门。
华盛顿特区美国教育委员会主席泰德·米切尔 (Ted Mitchell) 表示，这项行政命令是“政治闹剧”，“并非严肃的公共政策”。该委员会代表约 1,600 所高校。
“要解散任何内阁级联邦机构，都需要国会批准，我们敦促立法者拒绝误导性言论，而要以学生及其家庭的最佳利益为重，”米切尔说。“政府和国会应该专注于改善该部门为普通美国人谋福利的重要工作，而不是发布造成不必要混乱的政治信息。”
保守派对这项命令表示欢迎，他们认为这是遏制浪费和臃肿的官僚机构的必要举措，该机构未能达到日益激烈的全球经济所必需的学生成绩水平。周四的指令是在此前命令麦克马洪向各州发布有关使用联邦资金进行学校选择计划的指导意见之后发布的，这也是保守派长期以来的另一个目标。
“以内阁级机构的身份提供教育并没有带来教育卓越，”传统基金会教育政策中心主任林赛·伯克说。“自该部门成立以来……学生的学习成果一直持平，成绩差距持续存在，大学学费飙升。”
该部门自己的国家教育进展评估数据显示，数学和阅读成绩在过去十年中停滞不前或下降，其中包括新冠疫情造成的干扰。然而，四年级和八年级学生的数学成绩仍然明显高于 1990 年代初。在最近的倒退之前，阅读成绩也有所提高。
“有很多非常明显的积极影响，”无党派布鲁金斯学会和杜兰大学的教育研究员道格·哈里斯说。“考试成绩、高中毕业率和大学入学率，从 20 世纪 90 年代初开始都在稳步上升……人们不知道我们已经进步了这么多。”
特朗普政府已经采取积极行动，削减联邦对小学和高等教育的支出，包括 9 亿美元的教育研究经费。
列克星敦公立学校四年级教师德肖恩·华盛顿被评为 2024 年马萨诸塞州年度教师，他说特朗普的最新命令是对普通教师及其学生的侮辱。
“教育不是一门生意，”他说。“这是一项人类事业。”
州长 Maura Healey 及其政府成员抨击了特朗普的最新举措，称此举使该州每年从联邦政府获得的约 20 亿美元教育资金面临风险。正如 Healey 所说，“这毫无意义。”
“特朗普总统声称他想将权力交还给各州，但作为州长，我知道这样做的方式不是削减我们学生所依赖的项目和资金，”Healey 说。
相关：DOGE“植入”？罗伯特·肯尼迪 (RFK Jr.) 负责特殊教育？你在琳达·麦克马洪 (Linda McMahon) 的参议院确认听证会上错过了什么。
教育部成立是在林登·约翰逊总统的“反贫困战争”之后成立的，该战争通过 1965 年的《初等和中等教育法》大大扩展了政府在公共教育中的作用。
华盛顿特区自由主义智库卡托研究所教育自由中心主任尼尔·麦克拉斯基表示，该部门的成立也涉及政治阴谋，影响力日益增强的教师工会——全国教育协会在 1976 年总统大选中支持吉米·卡特，反对杰拉尔德·福特，因为这位民主党人誓言要建立一个内阁级的教育机构。
但麦克拉斯基和其他批评人士认为，自那以后，全国教师工会对该部门的政策施加了不受约束的控制，将成人的需求置于儿童的需求之上。
上周，该部门的大规模裁员导致该机构约 4,100 名员工减少了 2,000 人。受影响最大的是该部门位于华盛顿特区的总部，不过至少有 25 名马萨诸塞州的员工也被解雇。
作为回应，马萨诸塞州是 19 个起诉阻止特朗普政府削减该部门的州之一。
特约撰稿人希拉里·伯恩斯 (Hilary Burns)、克里斯托弗·哈夫克 (Christopher Huffaker)、吉姆·普赞格拉 (Jim Puzzanghera)、尼基·格里斯沃尔德 (Niki Griswold) 和迈克·达米亚诺 (Mike Damiano) 对本报告亦有贡献。
题图：特朗普将解散教育部：这对马萨诸塞州的学校意味着什么？
附原英文报道：
Trump signs executive order aimed at abolishing Department of Education
By Mandy McLaren Globe Staff,Updated March 20, 2025
Trump to dismantle the Department of Education: What that means for Massachusetts schools
The president signed an executive order Thursday aimed at abolishing the agency. Here’s what it means for schools in Mass. (undefined)
A little more than a week after his education secretary slashed nearly half of its workforce, President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aimed at abolishing the Department of Education, which for decades has played a vital role in ensuring all students have equal educational opportunities.
With governors who have championed diverting public funds to private schools looking on at the White House, Trump said he intends to return oversight of education to the states — an oft-repeated piece of conservative rhetoric that experts said distorts the federal government’s limited role in the nation’s schools.
“This is a very popular thing to do, but much more importantly it is a common-sense thing to do and it’s going to work,” Trump said. “Absolutely it’s going to work.”
Related: ‘More of a struggle’: Some parents worry how Trump’s Ed Department order will harm children, schools
The executive order drew immediate condemnation from student and teacher advocacy groups and Democrats.
“By dismantling [the department], President Trump is implementing his own philosophy on education, which can be summed up in his own words, ‘I love the poorly educated,’ ” said Representative Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat and ranking member for the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
Trump cannot outright eliminate the Cabinet-level agency, since it was created by Congress and can only be abolished by Congress. Republicans hold majorities in both houses but lack the 60 votes in the Senate that are usually required to overcome a filibuster.
And the White House’s messaging earlier in the day seemed to acknowledge that a version of the department or its programs will live on in some form.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that the Education Department “will be much smaller than it is today,” continuing to administer college programs for student loans and Pell Grants.
The federal agency, which opened in 1979, oversees federal funding for public K-12 schools, administers student loans and federal financial aid at universities, and provides programs and services for low-income students and their families, as well as those with disabilities. Its annual budget is nearly $80 billion, the third largest among the agencies, behind only the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Federal funding, however, accounts for 13 percent of all K-12 spending, with the bulk coming from state and local governments.
The executive order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive with limited experience in education, to facilitate the closure of the department, while ensuring its programs and services continue without interruption. One of the department’s primary responsibilities is the administration and oversight of two K-12 grant programs: Title I, which supports students living in poverty, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, which supports students receiving special education services.
Trump said Thursday that those would be “fully preserved,” though he signaled their administration may be transferred to other agencies.
His latest order follows several others that have rattled the nation’s schools, including those banning diversity initiatives and recognition of transgender students. As with his other orders, it is likely to face legal challenges.
Trump has accused the department of “indoctrinating young people with inappropriate racial, sexual, and political material,” and had promised on the campaign trail to dissolve it.
Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C., which represents about 1,600 colleges and universities, called the executive order “political theater” and “not serious public policy.”
“To dismantle any Cabinet-level federal agency requires congressional approval, and we urge lawmakers to reject misleading rhetoric in favor of what is in the best interests of students and their families,” Mitchell said. “The administration and Congress should focus on improving the important work that the department performs that benefits ordinary Americans, not political messaging that causes unneeded confusion and chaos.”
Conservatives celebrated the order, which they see as a necessary move to rein in a wasteful and bloated bureaucracy that has failed to deliver student achievement levels necessary for an increasingly competitive global economy. The directive Thursday follows an earlier order to McMahon to issue guidance to states on using federal funds for school choice programs, another long-held conservative cause.
“Imparting education with Cabinet-level agency status has not led to education excellence,” said Lindsey Burke, director of the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation. “Since the department’s creation . . . student learning outcomes have remained flat, achievement gaps have persisted, and college prices have soared.”
Data from the department’s own National Assessment of Educational Progress shows math and reading scores have either stagnated or declined over the last decade, which includes the disruptions from the COVID pandemic. However, fourth- and eighth-grade students still score significantly higher in math than in the early 1990s. Reading scores also had improved before the recent backsliding.
“There are lots of positive effects that are pretty obvious,” said Doug Harris, an education researcher at the nonpartisan Brookings Institute and Tulane University. “Test scores, high school graduation rates, and college-going, they were all going up pretty consistently from the early 1990s forward. . . . People don’t know we’ve improved so much.”
The Trump administration has already taken aggressive action to slash federal spending to both primary and higher education, including $900 million underwriting education research.
De’Shawn Washington, a fourth-grade teacher for Lexington Public Schools who was named the 2024 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year, said Trump’s latest order is an affront to rank-and-file teachers and their students.
“Education is not a business,” he said. “This is a human endeavor.”
Governor Maura Healey and members of her administration assailed Trump’s latest move, saying it puts roughly $2 billion in education funding the state receives annually from the federal government at risk. As Healey put it, “it makes no sense.”
“President Trump claims he wants to give power back to the states, but as a governor, I know that the way to do that is not gutting the programs and funding that our students rely on,” Healey said.
Related: DOGE ‘implants’? RFK Jr. in charge of special ed? What you missed at Linda McMahon’s Senate confirmation hearing.
Creation of the Education Department came on the heels of President Lyndon Johnson’s “war on poverty,” which, through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, dramatically expanded the government’s role in public education.
Its creation also involved political machinations, with an increasingly influential teachers union, the National Education Association, supporting Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election over Gerald Ford because the Democrat vowed to create a Cabinet-level education agency, said Neal McCluskey, director for the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C.
But McCluskey and other critics contend the nation’s teachers unions have since exerted unchecked control over the department’s policies, putting adult needs over those of children.
The sweeping cuts at the department last week reduced the agency’s roughly 4,100 employees by 2,000. Most affected the department’s D.C., headquarters, though at least 25 Massachusetts-based workers were also laid off.
In response Massachusetts was one of 19 states that sued to stop the Trump administration from gutting the department.
Staff writers Hilary Burns, Christopher Huffaker, Jim Puzzanghera, Niki Griswold, and Mike Damiano contributed to this report.
