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The Trump administration announced a plan to shift much of the U.S. Department of Education’s work to other agencies as it moves forward with dismantling the department.
The administration announced a series of interagency agreements Tuesday.
As reported by NOTUS, two major offices affected by the plan are the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office of Postsecondary Education, which will shift to the Department of Labor.
The Education Department will move the Office of Indian Education to the Department of the Interior; child care access and foreign medical education to the Department of Health and Human Services; and foreign-language education to the State Department, according to The Washington Post.
A Senate supermajority is needed to close the department completely, and a handful of bills to do so haven’t progressed. Meanwhile, the Department joked about its relevancy with a social media post of a fictitious out-of-office email that reads: “we might be away from our desks attending strategic assessments, creating more red tape, and doing nothing to improve student outcomes.” It’s signed “bureaucratically yours.”
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— Jennifer Palmer
Recommended Reading
- Leaders of Oklahoma’s business community say the state must improve its poor literacy outcomes with major reforms, including holding back students who fall behind in reading. [Oklahoma Voice]
- Schools are less likely to offer Latino and Black students early algebra classes, effectively shutting these students off from advanced courses and higher-paying jobs, according to research released Tuesday. [The Washington Post]
- It was the worst summer in years. Sechita McNair’s family took no vacations. Her younger boys didn’t go to camp. Her van was repossessed, and her family nearly got evicted — again. But she accomplished the one thing she wanted most. A few weeks before school started, McNair, an out-of-work film industry veteran barely getting by driving for Uber, signed a lease in the right Atlanta neighborhood so her eldest son could stay at his high school. [AP]
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