Trump Administration moves forward in dismantling the Department of Education

The administration of President Donald Trump announced Tuesday a plan to move several Department of Education offices to other federal agencies, in a unilateral step that seeks to dismantle the entity created by Congress to ensure equal access to education, although its total closure requires legislative approval.

The information was reported by the official Government site, and several media echoed in the last hours, such as The Washington Post.

In a statement, Education Secretary Linda McMahon explained that interagency agreements have been signed to outsource six offices, including those that administer $28 billion in grants for K-12 schools and $3.1 billion for university programs. Key programs, such as the Office for Civil Rights and Federal Student Aid, were not affected for the time being, although the possibility of moving them to other offices is still being studied.

The move includes the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education to the Labor Department, along with the Office of Postsecondary Education, while other programs, such as Indian Education, child care and foreign language instruction, will move to Interior, Health and Human Services, and State, respectively.

McMahon argued that these changes will allow for more efficient administration and return more responsibilities to the states, although experts and critics warn that they could create more bureaucracy for local school districts.

"The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states," McMahon noted. For his part, House Education Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-Michigan) celebrated the measure, asserting that it restructures a department marked by bureaucracy and liberal ideology.

A promise to close the Department of Education

The plan falls under the Trump's campaign promise to close the Department of Education, created in 1979. In March of this year, he signed an executive order for its elimination, asking Congress to act, though lawmakers have not seriously considered the proposal. McMahon acknowledges that only Congress can close the agency, but argues that its functions can be managed from other agencies more effectively.

During the administration, the department cut its workforce in half, from 4,133 employees at the beginning of the term to about 2,000, through layoffs and early retirements.

The series of moves, which some see as a prelude to the department's eventual closure, has lawmakers, educators and education advocates on edge in a debate that pits administrative efficiency against the need to maintain key federal programs for millions of students across the country.