WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday began sketching a roadmap for dismantling the Education Department, with other agencies taking over responsibility for federal student loans and programs serving students with disabilities.
The executive order Trump signed Thursday to do away with the department did not offer a timeline or instructions, but his administration appears poised to carve away all but the department’s most vital operations.
The Republican president said during a White House event that student loans will be handled by the Small Business Administration, and “it will be serviced much better than it has in the past.” He also said programs involving students with disabilities would be shifted to the Department of Health and Human Services.
The decisions drew blowback from advocacy groups that fear disruptions will be inevitable. The Small Business Association announced Friday it will cut its staff by 43%, raising questions about its ability to take on the Education Department’s $1.6 trillion loan portfolio.
“This can only result in borrowers experiencing erratic and inconsistent management of their federal student loans,” said Jessica Thompson, senior vice president of the Institute of College Access and Success. “Errors will prove costly to borrowers and ultimately, to taxpayers.”
Trump’s executive order said the student loan portfolio is too big for the Education Department to manage. After the SBA cuts, however, it will be left with fewer than 4,000 employees — about the size of the Education Department before it was cut in half by the Trump administration.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said she is preparing to relocate the department’s core operations to other agencies and roll back federal regulations. In an opinion piece published Friday by Fox News Channel, she said abolishing the department “will not happen tomorrow,” but she plans to pave the way.
“We will systematically unwind unnecessary regulations and prepare to reassign the department’s other functions to the states or other agencies,” McMahon wrote.
The functions to be reassigned include the distribution of federal money to support low-income students and students with disabilities, the department’s management of student financial aid, civil rights enforcement and data collection, she wrote.
Some parent groups fear the reorganization could result in weaker protections for children with disabilities. The National Parents Union said families are anxious HHS might treat students’ learning disabilities as medical issues and make them subject to insurance claims.
″Do we really think they are going to pay for our kid’s reading interventions?” said Keri Rodrigues, the group’s president. “Our children are not sick. They are not broken. They are not insurance claims.”
Only Congress has the power to bring a full end to the Education Department. Republicans in Congress are planning legislation to eliminate the agency, though they face heavy opposition from Democrats.
Democrats on Friday said Trump does not have authority to move federal loans or disability services to other agencies. They noted federal law places those duties under the management of the Education Department, including in the Higher Education Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Tom Harnisch, vice president for government relations for the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, said he questions the capacity of another agency to take over the massive student loan portfolio.
“That’s been one of our large concerns,” he said. “And what is the value added by making this overhaul to this agency?”
On Friday, Democrats introduced a House resolution requesting Trump and McMahon turn over records related to the shutdown attempt. If the House Committee on Education and the Workforce takes action within 14 legislative days, it could go before the full House.
Trump has denounced the department as a waste of taxpayer money, saying it has become infected by liberal ideology. He said its power should be turned over to states, which he sees as a remedy for America’s lagging education system.
Since the Education Department was created in 1979, the nation’s student test scores have remained flat despite $1 trillion in agency spending, McMahon said in her Fox News piece.
Conservatives have long dreamed of closing the department, calling it an unneeded layer of bureaucracy that burdens local schools. Among those at the signing were governors of several Republican states along with activists who say parents should have more power over their children’s education. ___
AP education writer Cheyanne Mumphrey in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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