White House sets up battles in Congress, courts by moving to shut Department of Education [Video]

U.S. President Donald Trump will sign a long-anticipated executive order on Thursday that aims to shut down the Department of Education, acting on a key campaign pledge, according to a White House summary seen by Reuters.

“Federal government control of education has failed students, parents and teachers,” the White House said in its summary. It said that the department had spent over $3 trillion US since its creation in 1979 without improving student achievement as measured by standardized test scores.

Even before it was signed, the order was being challenged by 20 Democratic state attorneys general, who filed a lawsuit seeking to block Trump from dismantling the department and halt planned layoffs.

The NAACP, a leading civil rights group, also blasted the expected order as unconstitutional.

“This is a dark day for the millions of American children who depend on federal funding for a quality education, including those in poor …