The Department of Education announced on Tuesday its plans to give away much of its power to other agencies as the Trump administration takes steps to dismantle the department.
The shift, which the Trump administration said will be done through “partnerships” with the Departments of Labor, Interior, State and Health and Human Services, was presented as an effort to shrink the size of government. In rolling out the changes, the Department of Education said it would provide “proper oversight” of the other agencies as they administer programs related to education.
“The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement announcing the changes. “Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission.”
Two major offices affected by the plan are the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office of Postsecondary Education, which will partner with the Department of Labor to oversee several K-12 and higher education programs, including ones related to homeless children and youth, rural school achievement and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
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The Office of Indian Education will partner with the Department of the Interior, an agency that already houses the Bureau of Indian Education. Despite Trump’s promises in the Oval Office in March that he would move the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to HHS, tribal education is the only “partnership” that mentions any agency movement for the office. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funding for tribally controlled colleges and universities will also now fall under Interior.
“Under President Donald Trump, Native American education programs will become stronger, more accountable, and fully dedicated to ensuring Native students are prepared for success,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in the administration’s statement.
HHS will oversee two programs created through the partnership: the Foreign Medical Accreditation Partnership and the Child Care Access Means Parents in School Partnership. The State Department will also work with the Education Department to establish an International Education and Foreign Language Studies Partnership, which is meant to “improve” the existing Fulbright program.
The Washington Post first reported the agency’s plans to use a loophole in federal law by running these education programs under contracts between other agencies and ED.
It would take a Senate supermajority to get rid of or transfer the department completely, and a handful of bills that would do so sit stagnant in Congress.
The American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents 2,700 Department of Education employees, condemned the decision as unlawful.
“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,” the union said in a statement.
It’s unclear how these partnerships will affect people currently employed by the Department of Education.
When McMahon was appointed by Trump, she made clear that her intention was to dissolve the department. On Sunday, McMahon argued the government shutdown proved how unnecessary the department is, describing it in a USA Today op-ed as “a pass-through for funds that are best managed by the states.”
There had been signs of the Trump administration preparing for such a restructuring since March, when Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and HHS would be “handling special needs” and floated that the Small Business Administration would take over the country’s student loan portfolio.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee told NOTUS in October he understood that the Department of Education would be restructuring.
“I think there’s room for improvement, so however we need to restructure it to work for the kids again, I’m all about it,” Mullin said.
When asked how dismantling the department entirely would occur, HELP committee member Sen. Tommy Tuberville told NOTUS in October, “They might talk about it, but that’d take a lot of votes.”
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