One year after the Trump administration sent layoff notices to 1,400 of its employees, the U.S. Department of Education has completed or is near completion of a sweeping transfer of most of its core programs to other federal agencies. The department's workforce has dropped from approximately 4,100 employees to around 2,800, according to Federal News Network. Career and technical education grants — worth roughly $1.5 billion annually — were transferred to the Department of Labor. School safety and anti-violence programs went to the Department of Health and Human Services. International education programs moved to the State Department. In all, roughly $30 billion in annual education programs have been reassigned through eight interagency agreements.
Education Week confirmed the breadth of the restructuring, reporting that most K-12 programs are now administered by other departments rather than by Education. Secretary Linda McMahon has described the transfers as "breaking up the federal education bureaucracy" and freeing the department from what she called administrative overhead that consumed resources better spent on students. The Trump administration cannot fully close the department without an act of Congress — a threshold it has not cleared — but the practical effect of the interagency transfers is that the department's operational footprint has shrunk to a fraction of its former size.
Despite the administration's proposed cuts, Congress passed a fiscal year 2026 budget that maintained most major K-12 funding streams at approximately Biden-era levels, according to Education Week and CNBC. Programs including Title I grants to low-income schools, IDEA special education funding, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act grants survived largely intact. Federal News Network noted the irony that the administration has been simultaneously shrinking the department institutionally while the department's largest funding programs continue to flow to states at prior-administration levels.
Teacher unions and education advocacy groups cited by NPR and the Washington Post warned that the program transfers would create confusion for school districts that have built long-standing relationships with Education Department regional offices and staff. The Daily Signal and conservative education reform advocates celebrated the restructuring, arguing the department had long been an inefficient bureaucratic layer between taxpayers and classrooms and that the program transfers bring federal education funding under more efficient administrative stewardship.
Left-Leaning Emphasis
- NPR and education advocacy groups warn that the program transfers create administrative confusion for school districts — particularly those in rural and low-income areas that relied on close relationships with regional Education Department staff.
- Inside Higher Ed reports that the layoffs have left institutional memory gaps that will take years to recover, particularly in civil rights enforcement, special education oversight, and accreditation monitoring.
Right-Leaning Emphasis
- The Daily Signal and conservative education reform advocates celebrate the restructuring as dismantling a costly and inefficient bureaucratic layer, arguing the program transfers bring federal education closer to its constitutional purpose.
- Fox News and right-leaning outlets emphasize that Congress protected major K-12 funding streams, framing the administration's approach as responsible restructuring — not defunding of public schools.
Sources
- EdWeek Mar 20
- Federal News Network Mar 20
- NPR Mar 19
- Daily Signal Mar 19
- Inside Higher Ed Mar 11