Department of Education Move to Transfer Responsibilities To Other Agencies Will Undermine Education and Create Confusion for Families, Students, and Schools

Washington, DC – Today, the Department of Education (ED) announced that it has entered into Interagency Agreements with the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Interior, and State to transfer programmatic management of core education functions to those agencies. ED announced that numerous grant programs designed to increase college access and success, run out of the Office of Postsecondary Education, will now be managed by the Department of Labor. Those programs include TRIO, GEARUP, the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), and numerous others. The Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) Partnership will move to the Department of Health and Human Services.  

The following statement can be attributed to Sameer Gadkaree, President and CEO at The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS):  

“Today, the Trump Administration announced yet another chaotic move that undermines the mission of the U.S. Department of Education, subverts congressional authority, and harms students across the nation.

Today’s action exacerbates months of troubling moves: the mass firing of staff, canceling critical grant programs, and shunting programmatic offices to other federal agencies with little planning.

Of particular concern to the higher education community is the Department’s plan to transition the Office of Postsecondary Education to the Department of Labor. This move will create confusion for students, colleges, and grantees. It will inhibit effective oversight of the nation’s vast higher education system at the same time that the Department is tasked with implementing the reconciliation law’s massive changes to the federal financial aid system.

These moves reflect the continued failure of this administration to properly steward federal education dollars and programs to benefit students. We urge Congress to assert its authority and safeguard the vitality of our nation’s education system by ensuring that the Department of Education fulfills its well-established statutory obligations.”