AP WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Thursday calling for the shutdown of the US Education Department, according to a White House official, advancing a campaign promise to eliminate an agency that's been a longtime target of conservatives. The official spoke on  condition of anonymity before an announcement.

During campaigning, Trump promised to close the department "and send it back to the states, where it belongs”.Trump has cast the department as a hotbed of "radicals, zealots and Marxists" who overextend their reach through guidance and regulation.

However, finalising its dismantling is likely impossible without an act of Congress, which created the department in 1979. A White House fact sheet said the order would direct Secretary Linda McMahon "to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure (of) the Department of Education and return education authority to the States, while continuing to ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programmes, and benefits on which Americans rely".

The Trump administration has already been gutting the agency. Its workforce is being slashed in half and there have been deep cuts to the Office for Civil Rights and the Institute of Education Sciences, which gathers data on the nation's academic progress. Advocates for public schools said eliminating the department would leave children behind in an American education system that is fundamentally unequal.

"This isn't fixing education. It's making sure millions of children never get a fair shot. And we're not about to let that happen without a fight," the National Parents Union said in a statement. The White House has not spelled out formally which department functions could be handed off to other departments, or eliminated altogether.