(WASHINGTON) — Education Secretary Linda McMahon has released what she calls the “final mission” for the Department of Education, as the Trump administration appears to be laying the groundwork for the agency’s dismantling.
The newly confirmed secretary’s plans for the coming months will result in what she calls a “historic overhaul” of the education department that “will profoundly impact staff, budgets, and agency operations here at the Department.”
In a brief list of goals guiding the department’s path forward that was posted to the Education Department’s website on Monday, McMahon, the former head of the Small Business Administration and Trump donor, stated, “Parents are the primary decision makers in their children’s education.”
She adds, “Taxpayer-funded education should refocus on meaningful learning in math, reading, science, and history—not divisive DEI programs and gender ideology.”
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, according to DEI experts, are intended to address and correct discriminatory policies or practices that may be found within an organization.
“Postsecondary education should be a path to a well-paying career aligned with workforce need,” McMahon adds in the list of goals.
Parental rights and “divisive” topics have been hot button issues on the state-level for years, quickly making their way to the national stage – with heated debate taking place in recent years over school voucher programs, content restrictions, book bans, and more.
McMahon’s plans follow President Donald Trump’s campaign proposals for education reform. One of these proposals — an expansion of school voucher programs — has been a key education talking point for the Trump administration, touted as an opportunity for parents to have more of a say in where their child goes to school.
School voucher programs allow families to use public school funds to pay for private school tuition, homeschooling, and similar education opportunities.
McMahon also echoed the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict the discussion of certain topics – like race, sex, gender and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) – in the K-12 classrooms as well as in higher education.
Trump signed an executive order in January that aims to find ways to cut federal funding to schools that teach certain topics related to race, sex, gender or politics.
Restricting DEI topics in schools has also been a cause championed by “parental rights” advocates who have been behind a wave of book banning attempts as well as pressures on certain curriculum requirements at the local and state level.
The department memo comes as sources tell ABC News the president is expected to sign an executive order as soon as this week calling for McMahon to diminish the education department and work with Congress to pass legislation that would eliminate it.
The Department of Education, which administers and coordinates federal education assistance including Title I and Pell grants, was established under President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and officially began operations in 1980. The department has long stated that education curriculum, as well as graduation and enrollment requirements, have been decided by states and local communities.
Trump’s “Agenda47” campaign proposed eliminating the department. “We are going to close the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. and send it back to the States, where it belongs, and let the States run our educational system as it should be run,” the proposal said.
The agency can only be dismantled by an act of Congress, but how the department is funded and its policy goals are much more within Trump’s immediate scope of executive powers.
In the memo, McMahon stated that under her oversight, “the Department of Education’s role in this new era of accountability is to restore the rightful role of state oversight in education and to end the overreach from Washington.”
ABC News has reached out to the Department of Education for further comment.
ABC News’ Arthur Jones II has contributed to this report.
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