A plan being considered by the White House would direct the education secretary to dismantle the department as much as legally possible while asking Congress to abolish it completely. At her confirmation hearing Thursday,

Amid the Trump administration's flurry of executive orders in the first month of U.S. President Donald Trump's second term came a rumor of the existence of a memo ordering that the word "felon" no longer be used on the White House grounds.

President Donald Trump has neither the authority nor sufficient congressional majorities to eliminate the Education Department, as he has long promised. So instead, he is exploring ways to dismantle it from the inside by slashing its workforce and doing away with some of its functions.

If the Department of Education is dismantled, as some Republican lawmakers are hoping to do, public school K-12 educators fear what programs could be impacted.

In her confirmation hearing, Linda McMahon handled tough questions from Democrats, and affirmed President Trump's plans to shrink, and potentially eliminate, the department.

Efforts by the Trump administration to dismantle the Education Department are underway. Here's what it could mean for students.

Federal oversight by the U.S. Department of Education has often created bureaucratic obstacles rather than actually improving student outcomes.