Trump administration accelerates push to dismantle Education Department as it offloads work to other agencies

By Sunlen Serfaty, CNN

(CNN) — The Department of Education on Tuesday announced a further dismantling of the agency by transferring much of its remaining workload to other federal agencies in a bid to convince Congress the department is no longer needed.

Under an interagency agreement, six offices will be moved to partner with four other agencies – the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Interior and State, according to a news release.

The move comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March to begin dismantling the Education Department, seeking to fulfill decades of conservative ambition to get rid of the agency. While eliminating the department requires approval from Congress, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has sought workarounds to shutter the agency, including cutting nearly half of its staff earlier this year.

Officials at the Department of Education indicated that the changes announced Tuesday are intended in part to demonstrate to Congress — and ultimately convince lawmakers — that the department is not needed.

“We look forward to having these as proof points for success and what education can look like without the Department of Education building,” another official at the agency said.

Plans for the announcement were first reported by the Washington Post.

According to fact sheets obtained by CNN ahead of the announcement, the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office of Postsecondary Education will both move to the Department of Labor, while the Office of Indian Education program will shift to the Department of the Interior.

Administration for Children and Families Relating to the CCAMPIS Program and the National Committee on Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation will move to HHS and International Foreign Language Education will go to the State Department.

A senior Education Department official said the agency is “still exploring” the best plan for other offices, like the Office for Civil Rights, the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, and Federal Student Aid – divisions whose functions impact a wide swathe of Americans.

McMahon, who has acknowledged that only Congress has the power to eliminate the department, on Tuesday touted the changes as “one essential piece of our final mission.”

“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,” she said in a statement.

According to a congressional source briefed on the changes, the moves are taking place under an agreement in which personnel are sent to other agencies, but technically the Department of Education has some oversight and leadership over them.

The senior education official referred to the arrangement as “co-management” of the shifted offices, adding that the policy and oversight will stay with the Department of Education but the process, particularly with getting grants out the door and monitoring them, will be the responsibility of the partner agency.

There is no effective date for transitioning some staff to the other agencies nor numbers on how many staff would make the physical move from their offices at the Department of Education.

The senior official said there would be a lag time before the changes are fully executed.

“We are really confident that this will end up being something that provides better services, more streamlined services, reduces bureaucracy and in shifting some of these responsibilities to co-management with other agencies we are necessarily narrowing the size and scope of this federal agency in line with the president’s executive order,” they said.

The American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, which represents more than 2,700 Education Department employees, said the plan was unlawful and warned against diffusing the agency’s functions throughout the federal government.

“This move comes as the Administration has attempted to fire large numbers of career public servants in these very offices — and is now trying to shift their critical work to agencies with no educational expertise,” AFGE Local 252 President Rachel Gittleman said in a statement, warning that the changes “will only create more confusion for schools and colleges, deepen public distrust, and ultimately harm students and families.”

The American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten echoed concerns about the impact on students.

“This move is neither streamlining nor reform–it’s an abdication and abandonment of America’s future,” she said in a statement. “Rather than show leadership in helping all students seize their potential, it walks away from that responsibility.”

Tuesday’s announcement marks the Trump administration’s latest effort to build upon the president’s campaign promise to shutter the agency.

Early on in his second term, the administration cut nearly half of the department’s workforce as an initial effort to shutter it.

The mass layoffs at the department were initially blocked by lower courts until the Supreme Court in July said the administration could proceed for now.

The department, which was created by Congress in 1979 when Jimmy Carter was president, is tasked with distributing federal funds to schools, managing federal aid for college students, and ensuring compliance with civil rights laws, including ensuring schools accommodate students with disabilities.

Most public-school policies, meanwhile, are a function of state government.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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