President Trump unveiled a sweeping plan Tuesday to break up the Education Department, part of a broader effort to shrink the federal government's role in American schooling. The administration's proposal would shift most of the department's responsibilities—including support for K-12 academics and college access—into other agencies, mostly the Labor Department, the New York Times reports. Other programs would be parceled out to Health and Human Services, the State Department, and the Interior Department, which would take over the Indian Education Office.
The plan steps up the administration's efforts to dismantle the department, which Trump called for in a March executive order, the AP reports. Earlier steps mostly involved job cuts. The administration says the latest move is designed to streamline government, cut red tape, and ultimately send more money directly to classrooms. Education Secretary Linda McMahon described the changes as a way to "refocus education on students, families and schools." But the plan has drawn criticism from teachers' unions, student advocates, and even some Republicans, the Times reports.
Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick called the department's core offices "foundational" and said they are not "discretionary functions." "They safeguard civil rights, expand opportunity, and ensure that every child, in every community, has the chance to learn, grow and succeed on equal footing," he said. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray called the effort "outright illegal," noting that under federal law, the department can't be dismantled without an act of Congress, the Washington Post reports. "And it is students and families who will suffer the consequences as key programs that help students learn to read or that strengthen ties between schools and families are spun off to agencies with little to no relevant expertise and are gravely weakened—or even completely broken—in the process," Murray said.
story continues below
The Post describes the plan as a "work-around" in which decisions would remain with the Education Department but programs would be administered by other agencies. "The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states," McMahon said in a statement. "Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission." One of her first acts after she was confirmed in March was to instruct the department's staff to prepare for its "final mission" of shuttering the agency. The following week, McMahon fired 1,315 of those workers.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
