Trump administration accelerates its plan to shut down the Education Department
WASHINGTON— The Trump administration on Tuesday accelerated the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education with a plan to transfer key legally required functions to other agencies, including oversight of Title 1, the $18 billion key poverty alleviation program.
Critics said the move was politicized and counterproductive and they feared future program cuts. California Support. Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said vital services for the state and nation’s most vulnerable students will likely be disrupted.
Steps are being taken to fulfill a Trump campaign promise to eliminate the department, which some conservatives have long described as wasteful, ineffective and unnecessary.
“The Trump Administration is taking bold steps to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Removing layers of bureaucracy in Washington is an important part of our ultimate mission.”
President Trump called for eliminating the department in a March executive order. Both he and McMahon spoke of a broad goal of encouraging innovation through local control.
Even before this effort, states provided about 90% of their own funding for education, but federal investment remains vital, advocates say. In particular, the federal role is focused on providing services to overlooked students and students with higher needs, such as those experiencing discrimination and poverty and students with disabilities.
The president has also embraced an interventionist agenda on education while cutting the Department of Education workforce, which Trump officials have described as a bloated bureaucracy. He has threatened to withdraw federal funding if states and schools do not comply with his directives to combat anti-Semitism, crack down on campus protests, end diversity, equity and inclusion programs and oppose expanding rights for transgender students, among other issues that suit his agenda.
The strategy behind the moves
The basic strategy announced Tuesday builds partnerships with other federal agencies that would take over the Education Department’s responsibilities. The ministry will retain legal authority even if the main work shifts elsewhere.
These partnerships seek to circumvent federal rules under the authority of Congress that place programs, including Title I, specifically within the Department of Education.
Title I is expected to move to the Department of Labor, which is likely to absorb an unknown number of education workers with the necessary experience and expertise. The long-term goal is to win the support of Congress and then eliminate the Department of Education entirely, which would require congressional approval.
“We will continue to collect best practices from each state as we partner with these agencies to improve federal programs,” McMahon said.
He also spoke of “working with Congress to enact these reforms,” acknowledging that the Department of Education was created by an act of Congress.
Administration officials insist their actions to date have been legal, citing previous agreements between federal agencies, including one from the Biden administration, as precedent. But the scale of the current effort is much larger.
Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) questioned Trump’s authority to take this action. “Not only is it illegal to dismantle the education department without congressional approval, but they chose today because they knew the Epstein vote would make headlines. They clearly didn’t want the public to see what they were doing to our children’s futures.”
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Assn., the nation’s largest teachers union, accused the administration of “using every opportunity it can to seize the protections and services our students need.”
How does the action affect vulnerable students?
Thurmond said the changes would complicate efforts to get money and services where they are needed.
“This is an unnecessary and disruptive change that will harm students, especially the most vulnerable,” Thurmond said. “It is clearly less efficient for state departments of education and local school districts to work with four different federal agencies rather than one.
“Our experience tells us that when you change expertise and responsibilities, you also disrupt services. There is no way to prevent the negative effects of a change of this magnitude on our children and classrooms.”
But administration officials talked about new efficiencies and synergies and argued that linking the training to workforce development at the Department of Labor would make the training more relevant to a student’s employment future.
What will happen to other programs?
The Department of Labor will oversee nearly all grant programs currently administered by the Department of Education’s K-12 and higher education offices. This includes pools of funding for teacher training, English language instruction and the TRIO program, which helps guide low-income students to college degrees.
Tuesday’s action leaves the Department of Education’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio and funding for students with disabilities in place.
But if the mandate to shut down the department goes ahead, it seems likely that those programs will eventually be moved.
Another transfer puts Health and Human Services in charge of managing foreign medical school accreditation as well as a grant program for college-going parents. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will undertake foreign language programs. Interior will oversee Native American education programs.
Federal officials have said states and schools should not experience any funding cuts.
The Ministry of Education tested this approach in June by announcing the transfer of adult education programs to the Ministry of Labor. It took about five months to work out the basic details, officials said Tuesday.
The administration’s plan quickly won support from Republican Tim Walberg, who represents a district in southern Michigan.
“The last few decades have made one thing clear: The status quo is broken,” Walberg said. “As the bureaucracy grows, left-wing bureaucrats have become emboldened to waste taxpayer money on a radical agenda. As a result, our students are left in the dust. Test scores are falling, students are unable to study, and college graduates are leaving school burdened with debt rather than equipped with workforce-ready skills.”
But the Department of Education and its central programs have bipartisan support.
One Republican who has expressed concerns is Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick.
“The United States Congress created the U.S. Department of Education for a very good reason,” Fitzpatrick said. “And for millions of families, especially those raising children with disabilities or living in low-income communities, the Department’s primary offices are not optional functions. They are essential. They protect civil rights, expand opportunity, and ensure that every child in every community has an equal opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed.”
Fed says program funding will continue
Department officials said the programs will continue to be funded at levels established by Congress. But that doesn’t stop the programs from running afoul of another part of Trump’s agenda. For example, in the announcement made on Tuesday, it was stated that a program that will help the education of the children of migrant workers will be transferred to the Ministry of Labor.
But on other fronts, the Trump administration is trying to eliminate this program. The administration first tried to stop funding approved by Congress. The administration bowed to the pressure. However, the administration also cut funding for immigrant education from its budget proposal for next years.
Officials said they did not yet have details on whether the changes would bring more layoffs at the Education Department, which has been weakened by waves of layoffs and retirements under pressure.
Blume is a staff writer for the Times. Binkley writes for the Associated Press. Times writers Daniel Miller and Michael Wilner contributed to this report.
