President Donald Trump’s administration took major steps Tuesday in trying to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, announcing six inter-agency agreements signed with other departments that will transfer several of its responsibilities to those agencies.
The announcement was immediately met with intense backlash from Democratic members of Congress, who questioned its legality, and labor unions.
The agreements — with the departments of Labor, Interior, Health and Human Services and State — come as Trump has sought to take an axe to the 46-year-old department in his quest to return education “back to the states.”
The move further fulfills a pledge Trump heavily campaigned on and later tapped Education Secretary Linda McMahon to carry out.
“The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” McMahon said in a statement alongside the announcement.
“As we partner with these agencies to improve federal programs, we will continue to gather best practices in each state through our 50-state tour, empower local leaders in K-12 education, restore excellence to higher education, and work with Congress to codify these reforms,” she added.
The announcement also came as the U.S. Supreme Court in July allowed the Trump administration to temporarily proceed with mass layoffs and a plan to dramatically downsize the Education Department ordered earlier this year.
That plan — outlined in a March executive order Trump signed — called on McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of her own department.
How Education agreements will work
The Education Department clarified in fact sheets it would “maintain all statutory responsibilities and will continue its oversight of these programs” regarding all six inter-agency agreements.
A senior department official could not yet say how many Education Department employees would be transitioning to these other agencies, and noted that there will be “a bit of a lag” between the signing and when the agreements are fully executed.
The official said the department is “still exploring the best plan” for the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services and Federal Student Aid.
The Department of Labor will take on a “growing role” in administering elementary and secondary education programs currently managed under the Education Department’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, per a fact sheet.
In another agreement, the Labor Department will also take on a greater role in managing the Education Department’s higher education grant programs, such as TRIO and the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP.
The Interior Department will also take on a “growing role” in administering the Education Department’s Indian Education programs, per a fact sheet.
Under an agreement with HHS, that agency will oversee the National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation’s work.
HHS will also “manage existing competitions, provide technical assistance, and integrate” the Education Department’s Child Care Access Means Parents in School Program, the department said.
The Education Department’s agreement with the State Department will let that agency “oversee all foreign education programs,” per a fact sheet.
‘Outright illegal effort’
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, blasted the move as an “outright illegal effort to continue dismantling the Department of Education.”
Murray said “it is students and families who will suffer the consequences as key programs that help students learn to read or that strengthen ties between schools and families are spun off to agencies with little to no relevant expertise and are gravely weakened — or even completely broken — in the process.”
Rachel Gittleman, president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents Education Department workers, said “this latest ploy by the Trump Administration to dismantle the Congressionally created U.S. Department of Education is not only unlawful — it’s an insult to the tens of millions of students who rely on the agency to protect their access to a quality education.”
She added that “students, educators and families depend on the Department’s comprehensive support for schools, from early learning through graduate programs” and “that national mission is weakened when its core functions are scattered across other federal or state agencies that are not equipped or positioned to provide the same support and services as ED staff.”
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