What’s at Stake as Trump Slashes Education Department: QuickTake

The US Department of Education is facing an existential threat under President Donald Trump.

After calling it “a bloated and radical bureaucracy” on the campaign trail, Trump began dismantling the department within months of taking office. In March his administration slashed about half the staff, already the smallest of any cabinet department, and terminated billions of dollars in grants and contracts. The president then directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate” the department’s closure.

McMahon pledged to do just that, called the shuttering of the 46-year-old agency the remaining staff’s “final mission.” In ...