New moves to dismantle the Education Department raise legal questions : NPR

The Trump administration unveiled a sweeping plan Tuesday to bypass Congress and outsource much of the U.S. Education Department's functions, telling lawmakers and staff it would transfer work covering, among other things, elementary and secondary education, postsecondary education and Indian education to other federal agencies.

All three of these offices were originally transferred to the department by Congress when it created an agency in 1979, and these steps are taken without the consent of Congress.

The administration has negotiated six new agreements between the Education Department and other agencies, shifting day-to-day operations to congressionally required programs while maintaining a small contingent of employees at the department, according to two people who were briefed on the plan by the Trump administration and asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.

For example, under these new agreements, much of the work of the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, which includes administering Title I, a key stream of federal funding that helps schools support low-income students, would be transferred to the U.S. Department of Labor, as would much of the work of the Office of Postsecondary Education.

The US Department of Home Affairs will take over most of the work of the Indian Education Authority.

The US State Department will take over the international education and foreign language program.

Responsible for the Child Care Access to School Parents Program (CCAMPIS), which offers child care on college campuses low-income student parents will relocate to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

IN USA Today article In a release Sunday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote of this kind of agreement: “We will remove layers of federal bureaucracy by partnering with agencies better suited to manage programs and allowing state and local leaders to control the rest. Partnerships like these are common throughout the federal government and aim to improve service delivery and efficiency.”

In July, the Department of Education announced one such agreement with the Department of Labour, under which Labor took over responsibility for adult education and family literacy programs previously under the Department of Education. Message from the Department of Education insisted: “The programs will be managed in parallel [Education Department] personnel, with constant guidance and supervision from [the Education Department]”

The agreements signed Tuesday leave out several of the department's core responsibilities, including special education, student civil rights and student loans.

On Tuesday statementMcMahon said, “The Trump administration is taking bold action to dismantle the federal education bureaucracy and bring education back to the states.”

Opponents of the administration's decision say that given that Congress created the offices and explicitly housed them in the Education Department, the White House cannot legally move their operations without congressional approval.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., ranking member of the Senate Education Committee, said in a statement: “This is a completely unlawful attempt to continue to dismantle the Department of Education, and it is students and their families who will suffer the consequences as key programs that help students learn to read or strengthen bonds between schools and families are handed over to agencies with little to no relevant expertise, and in the process are seriously weakened or even completely broken.”

In a briefing to lawmakers and staff, the department insisted that statutory responsibilities for those programs would remain with the department, even if the work was done elsewhere.

It is unclear whether maintaining even a small number of department employees in partnership with other agencies will be enough to convince the courts that the administration is following federal law.

According to two NPR sources, the briefing was given by Lindsey Burke, now the department's deputy chief of staff for policy and programs, who also co-authored the education section of the Conservative government's Project 2025 plan, which outlines how to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.

“The Federal Department of Education must be abolished. When power is exercised, it should empower students and their families, not the government.” Burke wrote.

There are likely to be legal challenges to Tuesday's actions.