The Department of Education announced Tuesday its next steps in dismantling the agency, including transferring several programs and responsibilities to other government agencies.
The department signed six agreements with four agencies, marking a “major step forward” in its goal to return education to the states, the agency wrote in a press release. Shifting responsibilities away from the Education Department aligns with the Trump administration’s goal of shuttering the agency, a move that can only be accomplished by a vote from Congress.
“Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon wrote in a statement. “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.”
Education Department Latest Changes
Under the agreements, the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education’s programs and parts of the Office of Postsecondary Education, including higher education grant programs and institution-based grant programs, will be co-managed by the Department of Labor, ABC reports. The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education oversees approximately $28 billion in grant funding and includes about three dozen programs that provide funding for low-income schools. The Office of Postsecondary Education oversees about $3 billion in funding.
Other changes are as follows:
- American Indian programs and Tribal Colleges will fall under the Interior Department
- Higher ed programs (TRIO, HBCUs, HSIs, etc.) will fall under the Labor Department
- Child Care Access Means Parents in School will fall under Health and Human Services
- National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation will fall under Health and Human Services
- International Ed and Foreign Language Studies, including Fulbright-Hays will fall under the State Department
Several of the offices that have overseen these grant programs were significantly downsized in recent layoffs. However, any staff members who are still managing them will transfer their respective receiving agencies, according to Inside Higher Ed. The department previously pushed to defund some of the transferred programs, deeming them redundant, irrelevant, or unconstitutional.
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During a press call Tuesday, a senior department official said that while the department has transferred granted processing to the partner agencies, it will continue to set the budget, criteria, and priorities for the grant programs as well as manage hiring and other HR processes.
“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 streamlines the bureaucracy that has accumulated here at ED over the decades,” the official continued. “We are confident that this will lead to better services for grantees, for schools, for families across the country.”
Critics, Supporters Voice Opinions Over Education Department Dismantling
Teachers’ unions and student rights groups were quick to criticize the latest moves. Kevin Carey, the vice president for education and work at New America, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, said the changes were “wasteful, wrong and illegal,” New York Times reports.
“Secretary McMahon is creating a bureaucratic Rube Goldberg machine that will waste millions of taxpayer dollars by outsourcing vital programs to other agencies,” he continued.
National Parents Union (NPU) President Keri Rodrigues called the partnerships a “disaster,” urging lawmakers to defend students impacted by them.
“By destabilizing the Department of Education, the Administration is undermining America’s long-term ability to compete, innovate, and lead on the world stage,” she wrote in a statement to ABC News. “Congress must reject this misguided action and defend the rights, futures, and global potential of the students they serve.”
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House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg defended the decisions.
“It’s time to get our nation’s students back on track,” he wrote in a statement. “It’s time to return education to those who are most committed to students’ success: their communities.”
Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson, said the administration was committed to downsizing the agency “while still ensuring efficient delivery of funds and essential programs.”
“The Democrat shutdown made one thing unmistakably clear: Students and teachers don’t need Washington bureaucrats micromanaging their classrooms,” she said.
