President Donald Trump continued his efforts to shutter the Department of Education by announcing that parts of the agency will be moved to other federal departments.
Six Education Department offices would be affected by plans to move operations to four separate agencies, the administration announced. Responsibilities of the Education Department’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office of Postsecondary Education will be taken over by the Labor Department, the sources said.
Additionally, the department’s Office of Indian Education would become the responsibility of the Interior Department, while foreign language programs would be moved to the State Department. The change would also move a child care access and medical education program to the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the report.
President Donald Trump campaigned on shutting down the Department of Education and the effort would fulfill that vow. In March, Trump signed an executive order calling for the department’s elimination and asked Education Secretary Linda McMahon to work with Congress on the effort.
““We’re going to shut it down, and shut it down as quickly as possible. It’s doing us no good. We want to return our students to the states,” Trump said at the March announcement.
While McMahon has acknowledged that only Congress has the power to eliminate the department, she and her staff have spent months making deals to allow the department to hand off large portions of its work to other agencies without action from Congress.
“Education is fundamentally a state responsibility. Instead of filtering resources through layers of federal red tape, we will empower states to take charge and advocate for and implement what is best for students, families, and educators in their communities,” McMahon said in March.
Ahead of the reports on the announcement, there was speculation and outcry over rumors that special education services would be included in the change, but they are not, three people with knowledge of the plan told the Washington Post.
Federal law mandates that these programs be run by the Education Department; however, the Trump administration is looking to find a way to work around that legality, the people briefed on the matter told the Post.
Federal student loan and grant programs were also not impacted by the Education Department’s agreements with other agencies, according to reports.
Education Department officials say the Trump administration is using the Economy Act, which allows federal agencies to enter into agreements to purchase supplies or services from another agency, as a way to justify the changes, according to Politico.
The programs will continue to be funded at the levels set by Congress, department officials said.
It was not immediately clear if the changes would bring more job cuts to the department, which has already been impacted this year by mass layoffs and voluntary retirement offers.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration paved the way for the upcoming change by moving adult education programs to the Labor Department. Officials say the new arrangements provide a “proof of concept” as Trump officials worked to convince Congress to close the Education Department.
Skeptics, however, say the change would disrupt programs that support some of the nation’s most vulnerable students. Others argued that the agencies the Education Department’s responsibilities have been given to do not have the expertise that schools and families rely on.
McMahon, who heads the Education Department, has argued that the department has become a bloated bureaucracy that has allowed students to be left behind.
In an op-ed published Sunday in USA Today, McMahon argued that the recent government shutdown showed how unnecessary her agency is.
“Students kept going to class. Teachers continued to get paid. There were no disruptions in sports seasons or bus routes,” she wrote. “The shutdown proved an argument that conservatives have been making for 45 years: The U.S. Department of Education is mostly a pass-through for funds that are best managed by the states.”
MAGA has found a new item of clothing to be upset about - a sweater from J. Crew
Photos of Marjorie Taylor Greene standing with Epstein survivors before House votes on Epstein files
Trump-Epstein email bombshells: ‘Crazy; dirty; early dementia; evil beyond belief’
Trump rips reporter who asks MBS about 9/11 and Khashoggi murder
Trump rages at ABC News journalist for being too mean to him
Trump goes on weird rant about Biden fist-bumping MBS: ‘I don’t care where it’s been’
