Trump’s Plan to Dismantle Education Department Gains Traction with New Federal Overhaul
The Trump administration on Tuesday advanced its sweeping plan to dismantle the Department of Education, launching a multi-agency initiative to strip the department of key responsibilities and return control of education policy to the states.
The move fulfills a major campaign promise from President Donald Trump, who has long argued that the federal government should play a far smaller role in how schools are run.
Under the plan, a number of education-related programs will be reassigned to other federal departments. The Departments of State, Labor, Interior, and Health and Human Services have all signed interagency agreements with the Education Department to begin overseeing their respective areas of responsibility.
“The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” said Education Secretary Linda McMahon. “Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission.”
McMahon outlined the long-term strategy, which includes gathering best practices from all 50 states, empowering local K-12 leadership, reforming higher education, and working with Congress to make the changes permanent. “We will refocus education on students, families, and schools – ensuring federal taxpayer spending is supporting a world-class education system,” she added.
The announcement was accompanied by a promotional video showing past presidents, including Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, calling for major education reforms. Trump has taken that message further than any of his predecessors, signing an executive order earlier this year to begin dismantling the Department of Education entirely.
“We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs,” Trump said when he signed the order. “This is a very popular thing to do, but much more importantly, it’s a common-sense thing to do, and it’s going to work.”
Key elements of the plan include:
– The Department of Labor will now help manage over a dozen programs related to elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education. This includes grants for local school districts and services for homeless students.
– The Department of the Interior will take over Indian Education programs to better align them with tribal and regional needs.
– The Department of Health and Human Services will manage federal child care programs for student parents and oversee medical education policy. Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill said HHS will work with medical schools to promote updated science on nutrition, metabolism, and modern healthcare topics.
– The State Department will partner with Education to launch a new International Education and Foreign Language Studies initiative, aimed at strengthening research and foreign language programs with a focus on international competitiveness.
The National Education Association, a powerful teachers union aligned with the Democratic Party, condemned the move. “This announcement is cruel and shameful,” said NEA President Beck Pringle.
Despite the backlash from unions, the Trump administration is pressing forward, arguing that the decentralization of education is both constitutionally sound and overwhelmingly supported by voters who want more say in how schools are run.
If Congress codifies these changes, it would mark the most significant restructuring of federal education policy in U.S. history—and a major victory for the Trump administration’s broader push to dismantle the administrative state.