Executive Order 14242

Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities

Signed 2025-03-20 in effect
EducationFederalism ↗School Choice
Education

Directs the Secretary of Education to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities.

Section by Section

What each section does, and how they differ.

Sec. 1 Purpose and Policy

Argues that controlling American education through federal programs and dollars has failed students, teachers, and families, and that the Department of Education's main functions should be returned to the States.

Sec. 2 Closing the Department of Education and Returning Authority to the States

Directs the Secretary of Education to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities, while ensuring uninterrupted delivery of services, and to condition federal education funding on compliance with federal law and Administration policy, including terminating DEI and gender-ideology programs.

Sec. 3 General Provisions

Standard boilerplate: preserves existing agency authority, conditions the order on appropriations, and creates no enforceable private rights.