U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon smiles next to U.S. President Donald Trump during an executive order signing event to close the Department of Education in the East Room of the White House on March 20, 2025 in Washington, DC, USA.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
The Trump administration has announced it will transfer many of the U.S. Department of Education’s programs to other agencies, a move experts say is part of President Donald Trump’s directive to dismantle the department.
In a briefing with reporters on Tuesday, administration officials said the government has signed agreements with four other federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to begin administering the program, which currently falls under the Department of Education.
Under the new agreement, the Department of Labor will have more control over federal K-12 initiatives, and the State Department will have additional duties related to international education and the Fulbright program, according to the Education Department.
President Trump signed an executive order in March aimed at shutting down the Department of Education, which oversees the nation’s $1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio, funds low-income students and enforces civil rights in classrooms across the country.
Only Congress can unilaterally remove the Department of Education. But the Trump administration may be seeking a workaround by contracting with other agencies to carry out the department’s mission.
“They are trying to hollow out the U.S. Department of Education and leave a shell of the original organization,” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration laid off nearly half of the Department of Education’s employees.
“We peel back the layers of federal bureaucracy by partnering with agencies better suited to administer the programs,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a recent USA Today op-ed.
McMahon said the government shutdown “highlighted how much the Department of Education is missing.”
Tuesday’s announcement did not include information about the future of the government’s student loan portfolio. But administration officials are exploring options to sell some of the debt into the private market, Politico reported in October.
Former President Jimmy Carter established the current Department of Education in 1979. Since then, the department has faced other existential threats, including former President Ronald Reagan’s call to abolish the Department of Education and President Trump’s efforts to merge it with the Department of Labor during his first term.
