Trump wants to close the Education Department. It's far easier said than done.

WASHINGTON – On the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly vowed to "close" the U.S. Department of Education if he regained the White House.

“We want federal education dollars to follow the student, rather than propping up a bloated and radical bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.,” he said in October. “We want to close the federal Department of Education.”

But fulfilling that promise is easier said than done. Dismantling the agency – which provides billions of dollars each year to low-income public schools and billions more to help millions of Americans pay for college – would likely require the support of congressional Democrats, who vehemently oppose the idea.

And though many congressional Republicans have echoed his vow, Trump doesn't have 100% buy-in from the Republican side of the aisle. Some in the GOP have argued that the Education Department would be better left intact because it could play a pivotal role in enacting Trump’s policy agenda.

Though it's uncertain how much of Trump's rhetoric could become reality, here are four key things to know about the small but powerful agency:

It makes sure K-12 schools comply with important federal laws

The logic underlying Trump’s pledge to dismantle the Education Department is that, as he has said, education policy in the U.S. needs to be transferred “back to the states.”

Education in K-12 schools, however, is already handled largely at the state and local level. Public schools are primarily controlled by school boards and get most of their funding through allocations from state legislatures and local sources, typically in the form of property taxes.

Yet the federal government does provide roughly a tenth of public school funding – a small but significant piece of their budgets. In order to keep getting that money, schools must follow federal laws.

That’s one place where the Education Department comes in. The agency, which became a Cabinet-level department in 1979 and has several thousand employees, is located in the nation’s capital but has regional offices around the country. It writes regulations that help to clarify and implement laws written by Congress.

To continue receiving federal funding, schools must comply with those laws, which among many other things protect students and teachers from discrimination and ensure that students with disabilities are being taught appropriately.

It oversees colleges and administers federal student aid

The Education Department also oversees the nation’s colleges and universities, nearly all of which receive some federal funding.

Any college student who has filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, has to interact with the Education Department, which administers the form. The federal Pell Grant, money the government gives to low-income college students to pay for college, also is overseen by the department – as is the country’s nearly $2 trillion federal student loan portfolio.

In short, the agency plays a huge role in ensuring students around the U.S. can afford a college degree. And much of the money in its coffers is contingent upon schools proving they can give students their money’s worth.

Start the day informed: Sign up for USA TODAY's Daily Briefing newsletter.

Dismantling the agency would likely require support from Senate Democrats

Abolishing the department, as Trump and other newly elected congressional Republicans have proposed, would require an act of Congress.

Though the GOP will likely have a congressional majority in both chambers, passing a law to shutter the agency would mean getting some Democrats on board. A 60-vote threshold required to pass legislation in the Senate would pose a big obstacle to Trump following through on his promise, experts say.

The controversial conservative blueprint Project 2025 outlines how offices within the Education Department could be split up and passed off to other federal agencies. But it’s not clear whether Trump agrees with the specifics of that proposal, and he has disavowed Project 2025 altogether. He hasn’t put forth a more detailed plan of his own laying out how he would shutter the department.

Michael Itzkowitz, who served in the Education Department during the Obama administration, said he doesn’t foresee the agency going away during Trump's second term in the White House.

“It’s more probable that they will look to scale back certain programs that they disagree with,” he said.

Many civil servants usually keep their jobs regardless of the president

Regardless of whether the agency survives four more years, a sense of fear has already set in among many staffers about what Trump’s next term will bring. That anxiety is part of a larger malaise among service workers in the federal government whose jobs could become more precarious if Trump implements the policies he has suggested would dismantle the “deep state.”

Jared Bass, a senior vice president at the liberal think tank the Center for American Progress, said he worries about an “exodus” of civil servants who typically carry on in their jobs no matter who the president is.

“They’re not trying to score political points for anybody,” he said. “The outright elimination of the Department of Education would take a machete, when we should be using a scalpel, to some of the challenges our nation is confronting.”

Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 4 things to know about Trump's vow to close the Education Department