Trump administration launches plan to dismantle Education Department

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration is taking steps to dismantle the Department of Education, the White House said on Tuesday.

Six department offices would be affected by plans to move operations to four separate agencies, according to two people familiar with the discussions who were granted anonymity to discuss the details ahead of the formal announcement.

The effort is a key step in fulfilling President Donald Trump’s goal of entirely eliminating the agency.

The department’s office of elementary and secondary education, as well as its postsecondary education office, would move to the Labor Department, the people said.

The agency’s Office of Indian Education would also move to the Interior Department, the people said, while foreign language programs would be moved to the State Department.

Additionally, the department would send a child care access and medical education program to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The expansive and unprecedented effort to outsource the department’s operations using intergovernmental contract agreements with other agencies does not yet include transferring federal authority over special education to HHS, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke as the agency began to detail the effort ahead of a formal announcement on Tuesday afternoon.

Federal student loan and grant programmes were also not affected by the department’s agreements with other agencies.

But administration officials did not rule out future efforts to move special education and student loans to other agencies during private briefings on Tuesday, though they said no agreements on those programmes have yet been signed.