Summary:

President Donald Trump is expected to sign a long-awaited directive Thursday to officially wind down the Education Department, following weeks of steadily winnowing the agency’s staff and spending.

Trump’s pending executive order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate” her department’s closure “and return education authority to the States,” according to a summary obtained by POLITICO. The upcoming order will also tell McMahon to ensure the department continues to deliver its services, programs, and benefits.

The Trump administration is already making steep workforce cuts at the agency — including hundreds of attorneys, student aid workers and civil rights office staff. The precise language of the order, which Trump is expected to sign during an event in the East Room, was not immediately available.

The order will also direct that programs or activities receiving any remaining Education Department funds will not advance diversity, equity and inclusion, or gender ideology, according to the White House.