Matt Barnum

What's interesting is that Linda McMahon and the Trump administration have already, even before the executive order, been doing what that order said, which is thinning out various parts of the education department.

Certainly we've seen hollowing out of other agencies to a much more extreme level than at the Education Department. But they have made some dramatic downsizing and they have challenged legal limits.

I should say that the administration has said that they're not going to go after the biggest education programs that the most number of people rely on, which includes student loans, money for students with disabilities, money for low-income school districts. But they have gone after some smaller programs, and they've cut the staff in roughly half.

And this was already an agency that was not particularly large. It was actually the smallest cabinet-level agency, so it's been cut in half.

It's an uphill battle. I'm not aware of any Democratic congresspeople in the House or especially the Senate where a 60-vote supermajority would be needed. I'm not aware of any Democrat elected officials who support this. And I am aware of some Republicans who are at least skeptical or seem hesitant about And polls suggest that this is not particularly popular with Americans.

Trump recently suggested putting what he described as special needs programs, which I took to mean special education programs, at the Department of Health and Human Services. in shifting the student loan portfolio to the Small Business Administration. Now, most legal experts seem to think that that would need an act of Congress.

The administration hasn't released details on how they would move these programs or a specific plan to work with Congress to do so.

Thank you.