Donald Trump calls for shutting down of Education Department, says it is a ‘big con job’

US President Donald Trump, who has been actively taking a series of radical actions, has called for immediate closure of the federal Department of Education despite agreeing to the complexity of the process.

The Education Department oversees a range of educational support with over 4,200 people and has a budget of $251 billion recently, a Reuters report said.

Trump had suggested that he would close the department through an executive order despite realizing that achieving this goal would require support from Congress and teachers’ unions.

The report said the proposed closure will pose consequences potentially disrupting billions of dollars in funding for K-12 schools and college tuition assistance programs.

Trump, who was sworn in as the 47th president of the US, has enacted sweeping changes during the first few weeks.

"The Department of Education's a big con job,” Donald Trump was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Trump has been criticizing the agency for a long time, saying that Linda McMahon, his nominee for education secretary, had been tasked with overseeing the department’s closure.

He had raised this issue during his first term as well. He has previously targeted agencies like the US Agency for International Development (USAID) for closure and has focused on reducing the size of the federal workforce and cutting costs, leading to government employees returning to office jobs or leaving.

However, Congress did not act on his earlier proposals. Conservative think tanks supporting the department's abolition suggest that other agencies could take over educational aid programs and oversight.