The Trump administration’s long-running effort to close the U.S. Education Department moved into a new phase this week as the agency began shifting some of its most influential grant programs to other corners of the federal government. The handoff marks one of the most extensive actions taken since President Donald Trump ordered the department’s elimination in March.
On Tuesday, the department revealed six new interagency agreements that will transfer billions in education funding to outside agencies. The largest reshuffling sends major K-12 funding streams, including the $18 billion Title I program for low-income schools, to the Department of Labor. Smaller grant programs tied to teacher development, English instruction and TRIO initiatives will follow the same path.
The scope of the transfers emphasizes the administration’s determination to dismantle the department without waiting for Congress. Many of the Education Department’s offices, especially those overseeing elementary, secondary and postsecondary grants, will see their core responsibilities absorbed elsewhere. What remains in place, for now, is the agency’s student loan portfolio and funding for students with disabilities. The Office for Civil Rights also stays as is.
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Education Secretary Linda McMahon praised the shift as a decisive step toward reducing federal oversight of schools. “The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” she said. “Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission.”
But state leaders and education advocates warn that the handoff could jeopardize longstanding programs that require specialized oversight. Rhode Island’s K-12 education chief, Angélica Infante-Green, cautioned that federal staff play a crucial role in guiding states through complex funding needs. “People might think it’s just funding and giving them the money, but it’s not,” she said in an AP report. “It is about how to co-mingle some of the funds to educate a child. So if a child is in special education but is also a multilingual learner and they’re in poverty, how do you use that to educate the child holistically?”
Union leaders expressed similar concerns. AFGE Local 252 President Rachel Gittleman said the move risks fracturing services that schools depend on. “That national mission is weakened when its core functions are scattered across other federal or state agencies that are not equipped or positioned to provide the same support and services as ED staff,” she said.
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The restructuring stretches beyond Labor. A separate agreement hands Health and Human Services responsibility for grants aiding college students with children and oversight of foreign medical school accreditation. The State Department will now manage foreign language programs, while Interior assumes control of Native American education programs.
McMahon has defended the push by pointing to decades of uneven student performance and more recent post-pandemic academic declines. She argues the department has grown into an unwieldy agency without delivering the progress Americans expect. Her long-term plan would dissolve the department entirely and let states redirect money that is currently tied to targeted initiatives such as literacy or support for homeless students. That, however, requires approval from Congress.
In the mean time, the administration is relying on bureaucratic agreements to chip away at the department’s footprint. The approach builds on a smaller pilot launched in June, when adult education programs were shifted to Labor. Officials say the latest round of transfers sets the stage for further dismantling.
McMahon plans to continue touring schools nationwide while simultaneously pushing lawmakers to embrace her vision for a post-department education system, one she argues will function better without centralized federal oversight.
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