The Department of Education has been a target of critics for decades. Republicans in the Oval Office have repeatedly tried to shrink the agency, and in his second term, President Trump has vowed to eliminate it altogether.

On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg education reporter Liam Knox and host David Gura talk through what it takes to gut a congressionally approved federal agency: what’s behind the Trump administration’s ‘creative’ efforts to scale back or move some of the Education Department’s trademark programs and what the shift could mean for students, lawmakers and other federal agencies in the administration’s crosshairs. 

Read more: How to Shred a Federal Agency

Hosted by David Gura; Produced by Julia Press; Reported by Liam Knox; Edited by Tracey Samuelson.

Fact-checking by Editorial team; Engineering by Alex Sugiura.

Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.