South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds introduced the “Returning Education Back to Our States Act” on Thursday, signaling a commitment to fulfill President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to dismantle the Department of Education.

In the conservative movement to return education to local control, Rounds said the legislation would “eliminate” the department while reallocating all key federal programs to other agencies.

Round’s announcement was first reported by Fox News.

“For years, I have worked to eliminate the federal Department of Education,” the Republican senator wrote in a statement, adding, “I am pleased that President-elect Trump shares this vision, and I am pleased to work with him and Republican majorities in the Senate and the House to make this a reality.This legislation is a roadmap to eliminate the federal Department of Education by virtually moving these federal programs to the departments where they belong, which will be crucial as we go into next year.”

In his statement, Rounds said the United States spends too much on education for students’ test scores to lag behind other countries on standardized assessments. He called the DOE ineffective and ignored the department’s responsibilities for the departments of the Interior, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Labor and State, according to the bill.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and assistance programs under Title VIII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of Indian Education of the Department of Education will be transferred to the Department of Education of the Department of the Interior will Federal Pell Grant and other loans for higher education to be transferred to the Ministry of Finance.

Under the bill, the Treasury Department will award block grants to states for K-12 and post-secondary education. The Treasury Secretary also has the authority to withhold these funds if they are misused by the states. The Justice Department will oversee federal civil rights laws that were previously under Title VI.

Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie told ABC News Thursday morning that he would also introduce legislation to abolish the DOE within the “first few weeks” of the 119th Congress.

“There will be one sentence — the only thing that will change is the date: The Department of Education will end on December 31, 2026,” Massie told ABC News.

Massie has been pushing to defund the U.S. Department of Education since early 2023 when he introduced HR 899. Massie’s bill was not voted on in the House last year.

However, education analyst Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, argued that Massie’s one-sentence bill was not realistic.

“You have to figure out what to do with all the legislation that is fed into the Department of Education,” McCluskey said.

“If Congress were to pass that law that says, abolish the Department of Education, technically the department would go away, but then you’d have all kinds of questions, well, who’s going to administer or be the administrator of all these programs.” he said.

In March 2023, Massie authored an amendment H.Amendment 124 in HR 5, the “Parents Bill of Rights Act” – the House’s signature K-12 education policy – ​​to abolish the department. That amendment failed because all Democrats and 60 Republicans in the House voted against it.

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Even when Republicans hold majorities in both houses next Congress, the Senate usually needs 60 votes to do anything, according to McCluskey. McCluskey said, “There’s no way they’re going to be 60, and so it’s going to be tough (to abolish the department legislatively).”

“The Department of Education administers a whole bunch of laws, and then those laws need to be changed about who runs student aid and who is tasked with making decisions about student debt forgiveness, and who determines or administers Title I and many of these other federal programs,” says McCluskey told ABC News.

“He (President-elect Trump) can certainly use the bully pulpit to push this a lot. He could provide legislative blueprints if he wanted to. But ultimately this has to come through Congress,” McCluskey emphasized.

Meanwhile, Augustus Mays, vice president of partnerships and engagement at advocacy group The Education Trust, told ABC News that the president-elect could also ask Congress to embrace federal programs like Title 1, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and others, in his request on congressional budget.

Public education, especially in high-needs districts, would effectively be drained of millions of dollars, according to Mays.

“It would really weaken the ability to function and help the supports that these students need to really succeed from an academic standpoint,” Mays said.