Trump Moves to Dismantle Education Dept

The Department of Education on Tuesday announced plans to further dismantle itself and move certain responsibilities to other parts of the federal government, moves that align with President Trump’s stated goal to eliminate the department entirely.

While some programs are assigned to the Education Department by federal law, the Trump administration is looking to sidestep the requirement to get approval from Congress to move the initiatives with six interagency agreements.

Instead of completely forgoing the department’s responsibilities, the administration has made contracts with other federal agencies to take over certain aspects of specific programs.

Two of those agreements are with the Department of Labor to take over the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and postsecondary education programs. Another two deals are with the Health and Human Services Department to co-manage programs for child care access for parents enrolled in college and medical accreditation of foreign schools.

The Department of Interior has agreed to take over some of the responsibilities for the Indian Education Program, and the State Department agreed to co-manage international education and foreign language studies programs.

“These partnerships really mark a major step forward in improving management of select programs and leveraging these partner agencies, administrative expertise, their experience, working with relevant stakeholders, and streamline the bureaucracy that has accumulated here at ED over the decades,” a senior department official said.

“We are confident that this will lead to better services for grantees, for school families across the country as a result of these partnerships,” the official added.

The added statutory oversight will stay with its own agency, but other processes, particularly with management of grants, will go to the other departments.

Some Education Department employees will transfer to the agencies that have entered these agreements. There is no set date for the full execution of the agreements, nor is there one for when staff will officially switch over to their new agencies.

The Washington Post was the first to report the news.

The announced plans follow an executive order by Trump in March to dismantle the department to be as small as legally possible.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon has acknowledged completely eliminating the Education Department would require approval from Congress but has long advocated for moving certain programs, such as the Office for Civil Rights, to the Justice Department.

A senior Education Department official said the agency is looking at more interagency agreements for other programs.

Read the full announcement here.