Trump advisers weigh dismantling Education Department, WSJ reports

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump's advisers are mulling executive actions to dismantle the Education Department as part of a campaign by billionaire Elon Musk and his allies to reduce the size of the government's workforce, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

U.S. officials have discussed an executive order that would shut down all functions of the Education Department that are not written explicitly into statute or move certain functions to other departments, the report said, citing sources.

The planned order would call for developing a legislative proposal to abolish the department, the newspaper reported, adding Trump advisers were still debating the specifics and the timing of such an order.

The White House and the Education Department had no immediate comment.

Republicans were critical of the Education Department under former President Joe Biden, particularly over student loan forgiveness and policies related to diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Trump has already issued executive orders to dismantle DEI programs across the federal government. ABC News reported on Monday that dozens of Department of Education employees received letters as business hours closed on Friday placing them on administrative leave.

Musk has been heading Trump's drive to cut what the Trump administration calls wasteful spending within the federal government.

Last week, Musk's team at the Department of Government Efficiency gained access to the most sensitive payment systems at Treasury and, as Reuters reported, locked some federal career employees out of their agency's own computers.

A senior White House official said on Monday that Musk was also helping Trump look at a revamp of U.S. foreign aid agency USAID.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler and Cynthia Osterman)