U.S. Secretary of Schooling Linda McMahon smiles throughout the signing occasion for an government order to close down the Division of Schooling subsequent to U.S. President Donald Trump, within the East Room on the White Home in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 20, 2025.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
The Trump administration says it should switch a lot of the U.S. Division of Schooling’s packages to different businesses, a transfer specialists say is a part of President Donald Trump’s directive to dismantle the company.
Throughout a press name with reporters on Tuesday, a senior administration official mentioned the administration had signed agreements with 4 different federal businesses, together with the U.S. Division of Labor and the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies, to start managing packages at the moment underneath the Schooling Division.
Beneath the brand new agreements, the Labor Division will administer extra federal Okay-12 packages, and the State Division will assume further duties associated to worldwide training, in line with the Schooling Division.
Trump signed an government order in March aimed toward closing the Schooling Division, which oversees the nation’s $1.6 trillion federal scholar mortgage portfolio, supplies funding to low-income college students and enforces civil rights in lecture rooms throughout the nation.
Solely Congress can unilaterally eradicate the Schooling Division. However the Trump administration could also be making an attempt to make use of a workaround by contracting with different businesses to carry out the division’s duties.
“They’re making an attempt to hole out the U.S. Division of Schooling, abandoning a shell of the unique group,” mentioned increased training knowledgeable Mark Kantrowitz.
Earlier this yr, the Trump administration laid off practically half of the Schooling Division’s staffers.
“We’ll peel again the layers of federal forms by partnering with businesses which can be higher suited to handle packages,” Schooling Division Secretary Linda McMahon wrote in a latest op-ed in USA Right this moment.
The federal government shutdown “underlined simply how little the Division of Schooling can be missed,” McMahon mentioned.
Former President Jimmy Carter established the current-day Schooling Division in 1979. Since then, the division has confronted different existential threats, with former President Ronald Reagan calling for its finish and Trump, throughout his first time period, making an attempt to merge it with the Labor Division.
It is a breaking information story. Please examine again for updates.
