One of the key promises President-elect Donald Trump made while campaigning for the White House was to abolish the US Department of Education. The federal agency, established in 1979, oversees funding for public schools, administers student loans and runs programmes to help low-income students.

When Donald Trump told Elon Musk one of his first acts as president would be to “close the Department of Education, move education back to the states,” he was invoking a GOP promise that goes back to President Ronald Reagan and the department’s founding.

The feds not only fund programs for the most vulnerable children, but also Pell grants, manage state compliance with federal law, like Title IX.