Can Trump dismantle the Department of Education with an executive order? Here’s what we know.

President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to eradicate the Department of Education, another move from the Project 2025 playbook, in an effort to drastically shrink the size of the federal government.

Since Trump took office, multiple news outlets have reported he was prepping to gut the Education Department to the fullest extent of his power, directing his administration to slash spending and pressuring employees to quit.

But Trump’s vow to shutter the department faces a setback: Most of the Department of Education’s spending — along with its very existence — is ordered by Congress.

» READ MORE: President Trump is poised to issue an executive order ending the Department of Education. How are local districts bracing?

Still, reports said Trump was preparing to sign an executive order that would call on the department’s director to “take all necessary steps” to facilitate a closure to the “maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.” The White House denied reports that the signing could happen as early as Thursday, and it is unclear when it might happen.

Here’s what we know and what it could mean for the education landscape.

The agency’s main role is financial. Annually, it distributes billions in federal money to colleges and schools and manages the federal student loan portfolio. Closing the department would mean redistributing those duties to another agency. The Education Department also plays an important regulatory role in services for students, ranging from those with disabilities to low-income and homeless kids.

Some of its focuses include overseeing student loans and financial aid, civil rights enforcement, college accreditation, and federal funding for K-12 schools.

According to the Hill, the department is already the smallest Cabinet-level federal agency, with about 4,500 employees.

A version of the department launched in 1867 by President Andrew Johnson, but it was short-lived. Despite the program’s ambitious goals, Congress abolished it and demoted its reformist chief within a year, according to Politico.

More than 200 years later, President Jimmy Carter signed legislation to establish the Department of Education as we know it today in 1979. It began operating in 1980.

Last fiscal year, the Department of Education spent $268 billion, or 4% of overall federal spending. The department ranked sixth among federal agencies in total spending.

The department manages about $1.5 trillion in student loan debt for over 40 million borrowers. It also oversees the Pell Grant, which provides aid to lower-income students, and administers the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which universities use to allocate financial aid.

Trump campaigned on a pledge to close the department, calling it too “woke” and saying it had been infiltrated by “radicals, zealots, and Marxists.” Trump has said he wants to forbid classroom lessons on gender identity and structural racism. He’s also set out to eradicate diversity and inclusion offices and to keep transgender athletes out of girls’ sports.

In the nearly five decades since the agency was created, conservatives have made occasional attempts to shut it down, with critics saying it wastes taxpayer money and inserts the federal government into local education decisions. Still, Trump’s goals of enforcement within the Education Department contradict his desire to get rid of the department.

A plan to abolish the department was also mentioned in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 plan.

Project 2025, a sweeping proposal outlining a far-right vision for the country, offered a blueprint for dismantling the Department of Education. The proposal called for many of the department’s biggest programs to be parceled out to other agencies.

Under the Project 2025 plan, Title I funding, the largest source of federal money to public schools, would be moved to the Department of Health and Human Services and given as block grants to states for them to spend as they please. The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights would shift to the Justice Department.

Trump has sought distance from Project 2025, though he has hired some staff behind it, and on some issues there’s considerable overlap with his own platform.

Trump was expected to give his education chief a deadline to deliver a plan for the agency’s disassembling.

Still, even some allies question how far he can go without Congress. Some of the department’s most significant programs are required by federal legislation, including Title I money for low-income schools and federal student loans.

That was a source of frustration during Trump’s first term, when his education chief repeatedly sought budget cuts but instead saw Congress increase the agency’s funding each year.

Trump’s quest to shut down the department could also be complicated by his own agenda.

Already, he has created work for the department, including plans to promote “patriotic” education and efforts to go after schools that teach controversial lessons on race and gender. The agency also has opened new investigations into colleges, after Trump ordered a crackdown on campus antisemitism.

Eliminating the department altogether would require Congress to pass legislation, an uphill battle that has historically failed to garner support.

In the meantime, Trump’s administration has started overhauling much of the department’s work.

Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has cut dozens of contracts it dismissed as “woke” and wasteful. It gutted the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on the nation’s academic progress, and the administration has fired or suspended scores of employees.

Trump has said he wants his new education chief, Linda McMahon, to “put herself out of a job” and close the department.

McMahon, a former professional wrestling promoter with limited experience in education, was confirmed by the Senate on Monday. She led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.

McMahon told employees that the department’s “final mission” was to turn the agency’s authority over to states.

If the Department of Education goes away, federal education laws would still be in place. But their enforcement would be up to each state, in theory.

That means policies, such as the law that guarantees students with special needs free education and accommodations, could be left to state enforcement, leaving some of the most vulnerable students at the highest risk.

Title I funding distribution would move to the Department of Health and Human Services and be allocated in the form of block grants to states to spend without safeguards in place, according to Project 2025′s proposal.

Enforcement for civil rights protections would also be in limbo. Currently, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights conducts investigations and issues guidance on how civil rights laws should be applied, such as for LGBTQ+ students and students of color. Trump has frequently described diversity and equity policies in education as “unlawful discrimination.” Trump also has pledged to exclude transgender students from Title IX protections, which affect school policies on students’ use of pronouns, bathrooms and locker rooms.

There are still many unknown futures for items under the department’s purview if the Education Department were to go away.

This article contains information from the Associated Press.