Trump Moves to Dismantle Education Dept

The Department of Education on Tuesday announced plans to further dismantle itself and move certain responsibilities to other parts of the federal government, moves that align with President Trump’s stated goal to eliminate the department entirely.

While some programs are assigned to the Education Department by federal law, the Trump administration is looking to sidestep the requirement to get approval from Congress to move the initiatives with six interagency agreements.

Instead of completely forgoing the department’s responsibilities, the administration has made contracts with other federal agencies to take over certain aspects of specific programs.

Two of those agreements are with the Department of Labor to take over the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and postsecondary education programs. Another two deals are with the Health and Human Services Department to co-manage programs for child care access for parents enrolled in college and medical accreditation of foreign schools.

The Department of Interior has agreed to take over some of the responsibilities for the Indian Education Program, and the State Department agreed to co-manage international education and foreign language studies programs.

The added statutory oversight will stay with its own agency, but other processes, particularly with management of grants, will go to the other departments.

Some Education Department employees will transfer to the agencies that have entered these agreements. There is no set date for the full execution of the agreements, nor is there one for when staff will officially switch over to their new agencies.