Trump’s pledge to axe the Department of Education explained

The idea has been floated by Republicans for decades. During Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign, he pushed for it to be dismantled.

Republicans have accused the education department of pushing “woke” political ideology on to children, including gender ideology and Critical Race Theory.

They want the federal agency’s authority shifted back to the US states, which run schools and the vast majority of education matters.

Conservatives also argue that other education department functions, such as administering loans, should be handled instead by the US Department of Treasury, and that civil rights infractions are the Department of Justice’s domain.

Trump’s allies also want to expand school choice, which would allow students and families to select alternatives to public schools, and break up what they see as an “education cartel” of the teachers’ unions.