The Department of Education announced on Tuesday that it is shifting duties to other departments as part of its continued effort to return education to the states.
The Department has signed six interagency agreements, a “frequently used” tool to contract out services from one federal agency to another, a senior Department of Education official told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Department of Labor will “co-manage” the Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and its programs and will “take on a growing role in managing” the Office of Postsecondary Education.
The Department of the Interior will help administer Native American education programs; the Department of Health and Human Services will join the Department of Education in a Foreign Medical Accreditation Partnership and will help “improve on-campus child care support for parents enrolled in college.”
The State Department will help administer international and foreign language studies programs.
“Education has broad authority under several statutes to contract with other federal agencies to procure services, and the department has had that authority since its inception,” a senior department official told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Other agencies have similar authorities to enter into contracts with other agencies, and its done so for 100 years.”
For some of the agreements, Department of Education staff will shift to the receiving agencies. Department spokesmen did not clarify how many individuals are being relocated.
The OESE and OPE programs have roughly $28 billion and $3.1 billion in federal grants tied to them, department officials said.
After President Donald Trump in March signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, the agency quickly went to work redistributing some of its duties to other agencies, including working to transfer student loan programs to the Small Business Administration and special needs and nutrition programs to HHS.
In September, the Department of Education also worked to shift federal workforce development programs to the Department of Labor.
“The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the Department of Education press release. “Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission.”
“As we partner with these agencies to improve federal programs, we will continue to gather best practices in each state through our 50-state tour, empower local leaders in K-12 education, restore excellence to higher education, and work with Congress to codify these reforms,” McMahon said. “Together, we will refocus education on students, families, and schools — ensuring federal taxpayer spending is supporting a world-class education system.”
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
