Following through on a longstanding campaign promise, President Trump signed an executive order Thursday ordering the Department of Education to wind down its operations so that it can eventually be closed.

The order, while light on details, comes just one week after the agency announced plans for mass layoffs that would cut its workforce in half and leaves in question the fate of federal programs that touch on almost every aspect of American education, from distributing billions of dollars to K-12 schools to managing the government’s massive student loan operation.

During a ceremony in which he was surrounded by children seated at school desks, Trump said his administration was “returning education to the states where it belongs.” He noted that key programs including Title I funding for schools that serve low-income communities, resources for disabled and special needs students, and Pell Grants for undergraduates would be “preserved in full and redistributed to other agencies.”

“Beyond these core necessities, this administration will take all lawful steps to shut down the department,” he said. “We’re going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible. It’s doing us no good.”

Education advocates have widely decried Trump’s action, arguing that dismantling the department would sow chaos through the country’s education system and hurt learners.

“Without the department, fewer students would be able to go to college, student loan borrowers would default in droves, and fraudulent colleges would prey on students with impunity,” Sameer Gadkaree, head of the Institute for College Access & Success, said in a statement.

Conservatives argue those concerns are overblown, however. Frederick Hess, director of the Education Policy Studies Program at the American Enterprise Institute, noted that the administration is not planning to cut major funding streams for education, but rather is looking to change who manages them.

“Whatever happens to the department and the size of its bureaucratic staff, the impact on students, families, and college-goers is likely to be pretty limited,” he said.

Because the Education Department was created by statute, fully eliminating it would require an act of Congress. But it is widely expected that the administration will try to hollow out its operations by eliminating programs that aren’t mandated by law and moving some of its core functions to other agencies.

The order instructs Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to take “all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education” to “the maximum extent” permitted by law, while “ensuring uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”