The Department of Education on Tuesday, Nov. 18, announced a further dismantling of the agency by transferring much of its remaining workload to other federal agencies.
Under an interagency agreement, six offices will be relocated to partner with four other agencies – the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Interior, and State, according to a news release.
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.
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. At the same time, the Office of Indian Education program will shift to the Department of the Interior.
“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,” said a statement.
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.
There is no effective date for transitioning some staff to the other agencies, nor numbers on how many staff 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 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 eliminate 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.
