Surrounded by children seated at classroom tables, Donald Trump sought to fulfill a campaign promise on Thursday, March 20, at the White House. He signed an executive order organizing the scuttling – but not the disappearance – of the Department of Education. Its complete abolition would require a super majority (60 votes out of 100) in the Senate.

For the time being, the American president is devitalizing this administration, half of whose staff has already been cut with redundancy plans, by returning a large part of its prerogatives to the States. "Common sense," he said. Above all, it's a thickly drawn ideological marker, unlikely to address the real problems of American education. The exact authority that would be transferred from the Ministry to the States remains highly uncertain.

Trump highlighted the poor results of national assessments in middle school, citing "Denmark, Norway, Sweden," as examples. The executive order cited the 2024 NAEP assessment, which found that 70% of eighth-graders were below fluent reading level in English, and 72% below proficiency in math. But there were two blind spots in his presentation. The president never mentioned the disastrous impact of Covid-19, which led to eighteen months of school closures, persistent educational delays and de-socialization phenomena among many children. A total of $186 billion was allocated at the federal level to compensate for the negative effects of the pandemic.

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