Dismantle Education Department

Trump administration launches plan to dismantle Education Department

The department will shift responsibility for several of its core functions to other federal agencies.

By Juan Perez Jr.

The Trump administration is implementing its widely-telegraphed plan to shutter the Education Department by transferring critical responsibilities to other federal agencies.

Six department offices would be affected by plans to move operations to four separate agencies, according to two people familiar with the discussions who were granted anonymity to discuss the details ahead of the formal announcement.

The effort is a key step in fulfilling President Donald Trump’s goal of entirely eliminating the agency.

The department’s office of elementary and secondary education, as well as its postsecondary education office, would move to the Labor Department, the people said.

The agency’s Office of Indian Education would also move to the Interior Department, the people said, while foreign language programs would be moved to the State Department. Additionally, the department would send a child care access and medical education program to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The expansive and unprecedented effort to outsource the department’s operations using intergovernmental contract agreements with other agencies does not yet include transferring federal authority over special education to HHS, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke as the agency began to detail the effort ahead of a formal announcement on Tuesday afternoon.

Federal student loan and grant programs were also not affected by the department’s agreements with other agencies. But administration officials did not rule out future efforts to move special education and student loans to other agencies during private briefings Tuesday, though they said no agreements on those programs have yet been signed.

Tuesday’s plans are sure to spark a major fight with congressional Democrats and legal battles over the extent of the administration’s authority to unilaterally transfer, for example, the administration of K-12 education programs to the Labor Department.

Department officials told congressional lawmakers the administration is citing the Economy Act, which authorizes federal agencies to enter agreements to purchase supplies or services from another agency, as legal justification for its plans.

Lindsey Burke, a Heritage Foundation veteran who is now the department’s deputy chief of staff for policy and programs, briefed lawmakers and education leaders on the agency’s plans.

The agency had already begun efforts to move its work to federal agencies and slash its workforce ahead of a record-breaking government shutdown where the Trump administration attempted to fire a considerable portion of the agency’s remaining employees.

Earlier this year, the Education Department struck agreements to send billions of dollars to the Labor Department to administer a suite of education grants and detail several agency employees to the Treasury Department to help manage collections on federal student loans.

And in March, Trump signed an executive order to begin dismantling the department, framing the decision as a first step toward his ultimate goal of entirely eliminating the agency.

The department did not respond to a request for comment.