(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is taking steps to dismantle the Department of Education, the White House said on Tuesday, as it moves to shrink the federal government’s role in schooling in favor of more control by the states.
As part of the effort, the department announced new partnerships with the four other federal departments – Labor, State, Interior, Health and Human Services – to share or transfer some of the functions it currently performs.
It said in a press release on Tuesday the new approach would “streamline federal education activities on the legally required programs, reduce administrative burdens, and refocus programs and activities to better serve students and grantees.”
The long-anticipated moves elicited strong reactions, including anger from Democrats who say the administration is circumventing Congress. Republicans celebrated the announcement as tangible progress in the goal of shrinking the role of the federal government.
In March, Trump said he fully intended to deliver on a campaign promise to conservatives by calling for the department’s closure.
“We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs,” Trump said before signing an executive order to close the department to the “maximum extent” allowed by law.
STREAMLINING BASIC EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
The department’s new partnership with the Labor Department is intended to streamline administration of elementary and secondary education programs and to better align existing education programs with existing workforce programs, the statement on Tuesday said.
Among the programs folded into this partnership are programs for disadvantaged, at-risk, homeless and “migratory” children. English as a second language, charter school programs, arts education, literacy and other basic educational programs operated by local districts also fall under this category.
“Co-administering K-12 programs with DOL will create a cohesive, unified strategy for talent development to build the workforce for the Golden Age of America,” the statement said.
Under the new partnership, states would still receive all title formula funds but the money will come through the Labor Department rather than Education.
A parallel partnership would transfer administrative responsibility for educational programs targeted to Native American education to the Department of the Interior, which includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The Trump administration is also shifting responsibility for educational and language studies programs for international students to the Department of State, which it said is better placed to streamline funding, improve data collection and “advance national security interests.”
Since Trump began his second term in January, the State Department has imposed a series of new restrictions on foreign students studying at U.S. schools, including vetting the social media of student visa applicants for what the administration considers attitudes hostile to U.S. culture and institutions.
Those policies may have contributed to a 17% decline in the number of newly enrolled international students at U.S. colleges and universities at the start of the current school year.
‘PUNISHING UNDERSERVED STUDENTS’
Democratic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren described the announcement as part of an assault on public school education.
“Instead of working to lower costs for Americans, the Trump administration is hellbent on punishing underserved students,” she said in a statement. “Only Congress has the authority to close the Education Department, and I will not let that happen on my watch.”
The actions announced by the White House on Tuesday do not require congressional approval.
Even though the administration needs an act of Congress to formally eliminate the department, Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced in March plans to terminate more than 1,300 employees as part of what it said was the department’s “final mission.”
Created by Congress in 1979, the Department of Education’s main roles include administering college loans, tracking student achievement and enforcing civil rights in schools. It also provides federal funding to help districts with a high percentage of needy children and to assist students with disabilities.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in a statement that “spreading services across multiple departments will create more confusion, more mistakes, and more barriers for people who are just trying to access the support they need.”
The department’s Republican critics have portrayed the department as a symbol of bureaucratic waste, underlining the need for a smaller federal government in favor of greater state power.
“The Trump administration is making good on its promise to fix the nation’s broken system by right-sizing the Department of Education to improve student outcomes,” Michigan Republican Congressman Tim Walberg said in a statement.
The announcement drew fire from some of Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress as well. Brian Fitzpatrick, a U.S. representative whose district includes parts of Philadelphia’s suburbs, defended the department’s functions as “foundational.” He said changing them without congressional oversight would pose “real risks” to students.
(Reporting by Helen Coster in New York; Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova and Costas Pitas; Editing by Frank McGurty, Daniel Wallis and Deepa Babington)
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