Trump Seeks to Shrink Federal Role in Education With New Order

Trump Seeks to Shrink Federal Role in Education With New Order
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (L) meet with parents and teachers at Saint Andrew Catholic School in Orlando, Fla., on March 3, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
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WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to review the U.S. government’s role in school policy, which supporters cheered as the first step in creating more local control in education and critics worried could lead to lower quality schools in poorer neighborhoods.

DeVos has 300 days “to review and, if necessary, modify and repeal regulations and guidance issued by the Department of Education with a clear mandate to identify places where D.C. has overstepped its legal authority,” said Rob Goad, a Department of Education official, according to a transcript of a White House call with reporters.

The second most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives, California’s Kevin McCarthy, said the federal government had in recent years exceeded its legal authority in creating regulations and guidance

“Different people in different states and communities will have different goals and ways of achieving those goals. That is something we should celebrate and enable, not try to stop,” he said in a statement.

President Donald Trump reacts after signing an executive order on education during an event with Governors at the White House in Washington on April 26, 2017. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
President Donald Trump reacts after signing an executive order on education during an event with Governors at the White House in Washington on April 26, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria