Presidential DocumentExecutive Order 142422025-05213
Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities
Primary source
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Published
March 25, 2025
Signed
March 20, 2025
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 56 (Tuesday, March 25, 2025)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 56 (Tuesday, March 25, 2025)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 13679-13680]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2025-05213]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 56 / Tuesday, March 25, 2025 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 13679]]
Executive Order 14242 of March 20, 2025
Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering
Parents, States, and Communities
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, and to enable parents, teachers, and
communities to best ensure student success, it is
hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose and Policy. Our Nation's bright
future relies on empowered families, engaged
communities, and excellent educational opportunities
for every child. Unfortunately, the experiment of
controlling American education through Federal programs
and dollars--and the unaccountable bureaucracy those
programs and dollars support--has plainly failed our
children, our teachers, and our families.
Taxpayers spent around $200 billion at the Federal
level on schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, on top
of the more than $60 billion they spend annually on
Federal school funding. This money is largely
distributed by one of the newest Cabinet agencies, the
Department of Education, which has existed for less
than one fifth of our Nation's history. The Congress
created the Department of Education in 1979 at the
urging of President Jimmy Carter, who received a first-
ever Presidential endorsement from the country's
largest teachers' union shortly after pledging to the
union his support for a separate Department of
Education. Since then, the Department of Education has
entrenched the education bureaucracy and sought to
convince America that Federal control over education is
beneficial. While the Department of Education does not
educate anyone, it maintains a public relations office
that includes over 80 staffers at a cost of more than
$10 million per year.
Closing the Department of Education would provide
children and their families the opportunity to escape a
system that is failing them. Today, American reading
and math scores are near historical lows. This year's
National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that
70 percent of 8th graders were below proficient in
reading, and 72 percent were below proficient in math.
The Federal education bureaucracy is not working.
Closure of the Department of Education would
drastically improve program implementation in higher
education. The Department of Education currently
manages a student loan debt portfolio of more than $1.6
trillion. This means the Federal student aid program is
roughly the size of one of the Nation's largest banks,
Wells Fargo. But although Wells Fargo has more than
200,000 employees, the Department of Education has
fewer than 1,500 in its Office of Federal Student Aid.
The Department of Education is not a bank, and it must
return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve
America's students.
Ultimately, the Department of Education's main
functions can, and should, be returned to the States.
Sec. 2. Closing the Department of Education and
Returning Authority to the States. (a) The Secretary of
Education shall, to the maximum extent appropriate and
permitted by law, take all necessary steps to
facilitate the closure of the Department of Education
and return authority over education to the States and
local communities while ensuring the effective and
uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and
benefits on which Americans rely.
[[Page 13680]]
(b) Consistent with the Department of Education's
authorities, the Secretary of Education shall ensure
that the allocation of any Federal Department of
Education funds is subject to rigorous compliance with
Federal law and Administration policy, including the
requirement that any program or activity receiving
Federal assistance terminate illegal discrimination
obscured under the label ``diversity, equity, and
inclusion'' or similar terms and programs promoting
gender ideology.
Sec. 3. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, March 20, 2025.
[FR Doc. 2025-05213
Filed 3-24-25; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F4-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on March 25, 2025.
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