Administration Moves Major Education Programs to Other Agencies as Push to Dismantle Department Continues

The Department of Education announced it has signed six agreements to shift multiple programs to other federal agencies — a significant administrative step in the Trump administration's broader effort to reduce the department's role and potentially dismantle it.

Under the agreements:

• The Department of Labor will assume responsibility for certain elementary and secondary education programs and institution-level higher education grants.
• The Department of the Interior will take on Indian education programs.
• The Department of Health and Human Services will manage select childcare programs and foreign medical-accreditation work.
• The State Department will oversee international education programs.

A senior Department of Education official told reporters that the Education Department will retain overall oversight and has broad authority to contract with other federal entities to carry out services. Employees working on the affected programs may opt to transfer to the partner agencies to continue their roles.

Linda McMahon, Education Secretary: “We are taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return control to the states by cutting through layers of red tape in Washington.”

The move follows an executive order issued in March directing Secretary McMahon to pursue elimination of the Department of Education. McMahon has said she hopes to be the agency's last secretary and that redistributing the department's responsibilities and increasing state control would achieve that outcome. She has also acknowledged, however, that formally closing the department would require congressional approval.

Some Republican lawmakers support the idea: Senator Bill Cassidy, chair of the Senate education committee, has introduced legislation to close the agency. But past efforts by Republican administrations to eliminate the department have failed to gain the necessary congressional backing.

The department previously transferred career, technical, and adult-education grants to the Department of Labor, describing Labor as a centralized hub for federal workforce programs while maintaining Department of Education oversight. The administration has also proposed moving the federal student-loan portfolio to another agency, though detailed plans for that transition have not been announced.

In a separate development, the Supreme Court in July allowed the department to proceed with plans to terminate more than 1,300 employees, a decision that reduces the agency's internal capacity to carry out its work.

In a recent opinion piece, Secretary McMahon argued that the 43-day government shutdown — which occurred during the middle of a fall semester — demonstrated that local schools and families continued functioning without an active federal education bureaucracy. “Students kept going to class. Teachers continued to get paid. There were no disruptions in sports seasons or bus routes,” she wrote.

Heather Stambaugh, high school teacher: “It feels like we're being thrown into a chaos loop.” Stambaugh and other education experts warn that dismantling or hollowing out the department could jeopardize funding, coordination, and protections that support students nationwide.

These administrative agreements mark a concrete step in the administration's campaign to reduce the Department of Education's scope. Nevertheless, a permanent closure or abolition of the agency would require action by Congress, and many questions remain about how services, oversight and funding will be sustained during and after any transitions.