The Trump administration announced a plan to move large portions of the U.S. Department of Education’s routine work into other federal agencies through interagency agreements, bypassing a new legislative process. Two people briefed on the effort said six agreements have been reached that transfer day‑to‑day operations of offices Congress placed inside Education when it created the agency in 1979, while leaving a small number of Education Department staff on hand.
Affected units include offices that handle elementary and secondary education, postsecondary education and Indian education. Under the new deals, much of the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education’s functions — including management of Title I funding for low‑income students — would move to the Department of Labor. Labor would also assume a large share of the Office of Postsecondary Education’s duties. The Interior Department would take over much of the Office of Indian Education’s work, and the State Department would absorb international education and foreign‑language programming. The CCAMPIS campus child‑care program for low‑income student‑parents would be shifted to Health and Human Services.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon has defended the shifts as efforts to streamline government, saying the administration will “peel back the layers of federal bureaucracy” and place programs with agencies it considers better suited to run them. In July, the department announced a separate agreement moving adult education and family literacy programs to Labor, saying those programs would be managed alongside Education staff with ongoing oversight by the department.
The agreements stop short of removing the Education Department’s core statutory responsibilities: special education, enforcement of student civil‑rights protections and federal student loan oversight remain with Education. The department says statutory duties will stay with it even if operational tasks are carried out elsewhere.
Critics argue the transfers are unlawful because Congress explicitly created those offices and placed them inside the Education Department. Sen. Patty Murray (D‑Wash.) called the effort an illegal attempt to dismantle the agency and warned that students and families could be harmed by moving programs to agencies with limited relevant expertise. The administration briefing to lawmakers was led by Lindsey Burke, a deputy chief of staff at Education and a co‑author of the conservative Project 2025 blueprint that advocates eliminating the federal Department of Education.
Legal challenges are expected over whether maintaining a small Education staff while relocating program operations satisfies federal law and congressional intent.