WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday began sketching a roadmap for dismantling the Education Department, with other agencies taking over responsibility for federal student loans and programs serving students with disabilities.
The executive order Trump signed Thursday to do away with the department did not offer a timeline or instructions, but his administration appears poised to carve away all but the department’s most vital operations.
Trump said student loans will be handled by the Small Business Administration, and “it will be serviced much better than it has in the past.” He also said programs involving students with disabilities would be shifted to the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Republican president announced the changes at the beginning of an Oval Office event focused on developing a next-generation fighter jet.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said she is preparing to relocate the department’s core operations to other agencies and roll back federal regulations. In an opinion piece published Friday by Fox News Channel, she said abolishing the department “will not happen tomorrow,” but she plans to pave the way.
“We will systematically unwind unnecessary regulations and prepare to reassign the department’s other functions to the states or other agencies,” McMahon wrote.
The functions to be reassigned include the distribution of federal money to support low-income students and students with disabilities, the department’s management of student financial aid, civil rights enforcement and data collection, she wrote.
Only Congress has the power to bring a full end to the Education Department. Republicans in Congress are planning legislation to eliminate the agency, though they face heavy opposition from Democrats.
Opponents already vowed to challenge Trump’s order in court.
Some Democratic governors say it will lead to bigger class sizes and fewer after-school programs. Opponents say Trump’s order will hurt students who rely on federal money and widen gaps between higher- and lower-achieving states.
Already the department has used layoffs and buyouts to halve its workforce while cutting dozens of contracts deemed wasteful or overly liberal.
Trump has denounced the department as a waste of taxpayer money, saying it has become infected by liberal ideology. He said its power should be turned over to states, which he sees as a remedy for America’s lagging education system.
“The cost will be half, and the education will be maybe many, many times better,” Trump said at a Thursday signing ceremony.
Trump’s executive order said the Education Department is not big enough to handle its loan portfolio, adding that “it must return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve America’s students.”
Conservatives have long dreamed of closing the department, calling it an unneeded layer of bureaucracy that burdens local schools. Among those at the signing were the governors of several Republican states along with activists who say parents should have more power over their children’s education.
Much of the agency’s work revolves around managing money. It oversees a $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio and sends billions of dollars a year to public schools. Most of the aid comes from federal law, with programs targeting low-income schools and students with disabilities and special needs.
It also oversees student financial aid including Pell grants and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA.
Since the Education Department was created in 1979, the nation’s student test scores have remained flat despite $1 trillion in agency spending, McMahon said in her Fox News piece.
The oddity of the task before McMahon, being responsible for the permanent closure of the department she leads, wasn’t lost on her.
“This is not a routine mission,” she wrote. “It is a transformation, driven by the clear will of the American people to return education to the states — and the decisive election of President Donald Trump.”
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