President Donald Trump said during his campaign that he would abolish the Department of Education (DOE). Just last month, he signed an executive order to do just that. The question now is: where do voters stand on the idea? A fresh poll suggests that American voters support the president’s axing of the DOE, but only by a slightly tipped scale.

A Rasmussen Reports poll of 1,088 likely U.S. voters, conducted March 30 to April 1, revealed a divided nation on the fate of DOE. A slim majority — 51% — support abolishing the DOE, with 35% “strongly” favoring its demise. Yet, at the same time, a notable 47% oppose its elimination, including 35% who “strongly” disapprove. Strikingly, voters are deadlocked on whether the DOE holds value with a 41% to 41% split on whether it improves American schools. At least 13% were largely indifferent toward what kind of impact it has had.

Reviewing its own findings, Rasmussen noted that opinions on what happens to the DOE are “largely divided along party lines.” They elaborated, “While 62 percent of Democrats think the department has made American schools better, 57 percent of Republicans believe it has made schools worse. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 33 percent say the federal Department of Education has made American schools better, 44 percent think it’s made schools worse, and 17 percent believe it hasn’t made much difference.”

Rasmussen added that “while 78 percent of Republicans approve of Trump’s executive order to begin shutting down the federal Department of Education, 73 percent of Democrats disapprove. Unaffiliated voters are evenly divided, with 48 percent approving and 48 percent disapproving of Trump shutting down the department.”

In order for the DOE to be officially dismantled, Congress would have to act. At the time Trump signed his order, he said confidently, “We’re going to eliminate it, and everybody knows it’s right, and the Democrats know it’s right. And I hope they’re going to be voting for it, because ultimately it may come before them.” In the order itself, the Trump administration argued that “the Department of Education’s main functions can, and should, be returned to the States.” Doing so, the order continued, would help “ensure student success” by “empowering parents, states, and communities.”

While the fate of the DOE ultimately lies in the hands of Congress, Education Secretary Linda McMahon was quickly tasked with “winding down” the department, and it was only shortly after her confirmation that she announced and executed her plans to reduce the number of DOE employees. In a statement released at the time, McMahon said the reduction was meant to reflect the DOE’s “commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.” She also went on to describe the move as “a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system.”

Some department officials say they support the actions. One official acknowledged that while “it’s going to be a big change for the department … it is one that we truly believe is going to be better for the long-term success of our education system and our country.” Momentum only appears to be building. Just last week, Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) reintroduced the Returning Education to Our States Act. Joined by cosponsors Senators Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), the bill aligns with the Trump administration’s push to abolish the DOE.

Echoing the sentiments of Trump and his team, Rounds explained in a statement that “we all know that teachers, parents, local school boards and state Departments of Education know what’s best for their students, not bureaucrats in Washington.” Created simply to “collect education data and advise state and local organizations on best practices,” he added, it has since “grown into an oversized bureaucracy that dictates one-size-fits-all policies, standards and practices for students across the nation.”

Adding to this, Banks expressed how the proposed legislation gives Congress “a golden opportunity to codify President Trump’s executive actions,” serving as “a win for American education.” Sheehy agreed, imploring, “[I]t’s time to put students first, not bureaucracy. … Closing the DOE will not cut off funds from students who depend on them, but it will eliminate layers of red tape in Washington, D.C. and ensure taxpayer money for education is better spent at the local level, where the dollars support kids, families, and hardworking teachers.”

Family Research Council’s Meg Kilgannon serves as a senior fellow for Education Studies and formerly worked for the Department of Education during President Trump’s first term. Commenting on the push to abolish the DOE, Kilgannon told The Washington Stand, “Whenever a ‘government service’ is ‘cut,’ people can be nervous about losing out on something.” However, “in the case of closing down the Department of Education, this isn’t how we should approach this.”

Kilgannon elaborated: “We can’t imagine the wonderful, creative, and responsive solutions to America’s educational crisis because our view is blocked by the bureaucracy that inhabits the federal Department of Education.” Moving forward, she concluded, “Support for closing the Department of Ed will be even higher once state and local educators are unshackled from regulations and ideological agendas driven from Washington, D.C.”