Trump signs executive order to close Department of Education
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What major changes did President Trump announce?
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson and in the early hours of Friday the 21st of March, these are our main stories. President Trump signs an executive order to dismantle the US Department of Education. The first woman, first African and youngest ever International Olympic Committee President, Kirsty Coventry, wins at an election held in Greece. As ceasefire negotiations continue, President Zelensky tells EU leaders that Russia must stop making unnecessary demands that prolong the war in Ukraine. Also in this podcast, thousands of protesters have defied a government ban and rallied for a second day in Istanbul over the arrest of the city's mayor, a key rival to Turkey's President Erdogan.
If his candidacy is blocked, this will lead to much higher support for him because people in Turkey will not allow their ballot box rights to be denied.
and why the script of the groundbreaking French film Breathless could fetch $650,000. It was one of Donald Trump's chief pledges in the run-up to the 2024 election. And in the last few hours, the president has signed an executive order dismantling the Department of Education, the body which oversees public school funding, student loans and programmes for low-income students.
What are the implications of dismantling the Department of Education?
Speaking at the White House, Mr Trump accused the department of breathtaking failures, claiming that the US hadn't done well in education for a long time.
We're going to be returning education very simply back to the states where it belongs. And this is a very popular thing to do. But much more importantly, it's a common sense thing to do. And it's going to work. Absolutely, it's going to work. And I can tell you from dealing with the governors and others in the state, they want it so badly. They want to take their children back and really teach their children individually. Probably the cost will be half individually. and the education will be maybe many, many times better.
The Department of Education has a budget of $268 billion, 4,400 staff, and affects 50 million public school students. The Democrats have described the closure as reckless. Joanna Maska is a former White House advisor who served in the Obama administration.
It may make people feel better that they feel like they have control because, look, we all want our kids to have the best education. But if we don't have the best data and the best tools at every state level, we have 50 different Department of Educations competing with all of the countries that are providing those resources to their students.
Our North America correspondent, Marilyn Thomas, is following developments.
On his own, President Trump cannot scrap the entire department. It was set up with congressional approval and so it will need congressional approval to dismantle it as well. And that is not something that is likely to happen because Republicans would need 60 votes in the Senate. It would need a super majority and that's not something that is... likely to happen. It's a political long shot. And even in the House of Representatives, President Trump would likely struggle to gain the necessary support as well. And just as a reminder, there was a vote last year to abolish the Education Department, and that was attached to another amendment as well. But that failed to pass because 60 Republicans joined Democrats in the House to vote no. So like a lot of other President Trump's
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What major changes did President Trump announce?
0:38–2:05
2
What are the implications of dismantling the Department of Education?
2:05–6:06
3
Who is Kirsty Coventry and why is her IOC presidency significant?
6:06–9:10
4
How is the EU responding to the war in Ukraine?
9:10–13:31
5
What are the security concerns in Estonia amid Russia tensions?
13:31–29:52
Speakers
14 identifiedMore from Global News Podcast
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