Shuttering the agency is unlikely as it would require congressional approval and some Democratic votes to break the Senate filibuster.

The U.S. Department of Education's workforce will be cut in half through layoffs rolled out Tuesday and buyouts over the past month.

Following through on a high-profile campaign promise to dismantle the US Department of Education, the Trump administration is slashing nearly half the agency’s workforce — a prelude, many experts suspect, to a forthcoming executive order further shifting responsibilities for educating the country’s students away from the federal government.