The Trump administration unveiled a plan to shift substantial portions of the U.S. Department of Education’s work to other federal agencies, bypassing Congress. According to two people briefed on the effort who asked not to be named, the administration has forged six agreements that offload day-to-day operations of congressionally created offices while leaving a small contingent of Education Department staff in place.
Offices affected include elementary and secondary education, postsecondary education and Indian education—offices Congress placed inside the department when it created the agency in 1979. Under the new agreements, much of the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education’s work, including management of Title I funding for low-income students, would move to the Department of Labor, which would also take on much of the Office of Postsecondary Education’s responsibilities. The Department of the Interior would assume much of the Office of Indian Education’s work. The State Department would take on international education and foreign language programming. Responsibility for the CCAMPIS program, which provides campus childcare to low-income student-parents, would move to Health and Human Services.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon has framed such shifts as efficiency moves, saying the administration will “peel back the layers of federal bureaucracy” and partner with agencies “better suited to manage programs,” in a USA Today opinion piece and in department statements. In July, the Education Department announced an agreement with Labor transferring adult education and family literacy programs; that release emphasized the programs would be “managed alongside [Education Department] staff, with continued leadership and oversight by [the Education Department].”
Tuesday’s agreements stop short of changing the department’s signature responsibilities: special education, student civil rights enforcement and student loans remain at Education. The department maintained that statutory responsibilities would remain with it even if day-to-day work is done elsewhere.
Opponents say the moves are illegal because Congress explicitly created those offices and placed them inside the Education Department. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., called the effort “an outright illegal effort to continue dismantling the Department of Education,” warning that students and families would suffer if programs are handed to agencies with “little to no relevant expertise.”
The administration’s briefing to lawmakers and staff was led by Lindsey Burke, deputy chief of staff for policy and programs at Education, who co-authored the education section of the conservative Project 2025 blueprint that advocates eliminating the federal Department of Education. “The federal Department of Education should be eliminated,” Burke wrote in that document.
Legal challenges are expected over whether retaining a small number of department staff while moving program operations to other agencies satisfies federal law and congressional intent.